Grant Shapps was quizzed on the issue by parliament’s transport select committee.

MP Ben Bradshaw told the transport secretary the travel industry was frustrated decisions were being made with “no logic, no justification and also being made overnight”.

“Can you guarantee no country will be put on the red list, giving people 36 hours to get out before they have to face nearly £3,000 of hotel quarantine?” he asked.

Shapps said he shared this frustration but failed to commit.

He said: “However, I hope, given our level of vaccination, given the level of vaccines moving up around the world now, that we’ve moved away from the bad old days where things have to happen very, very quickly.

“I’m genetically inclined to your perspective that we must give people notice given that we now have the level of vaccine protection that we enjoy.”

Shapps said the criteria for moving countries between different traffic light categories was “openly published on gov.uk”, but Bradshaw said the fine detail was absent. 

Transport committee chair Huw Merriman added a written request in August to the Joint Biosecurity Centre for a detailed explanation of how traffic light changes were decided had gone unanswered. 

“No response at all, we can’t find any detail for the methodology for the advice on the red list,” said Merriman. “They are not writing back to us, they just seem to be a bit Wizard of Oz about it.”

Shapps replied the JBC was not under his remit. “They are a Department of Health body.”

“I will very happily write to them… and say that in my view, at least, they certainly should share information with a committee of parliament.”