Inconsistent, often contradictory Government messaging left many in the dark about the so-called 'amber list' countries

21 May 2021 | Full Fact's weekly news
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FACT CHECK
Ministers create confusion over foreign holidays and 'amber list' countries

On Monday, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps officially scrapped the Government’s guidance to “stay in the UK,” officially replacing it with a new “traffic light system”.

Twelve countries made it onto the “green list”—meaning returning travellers to England will not be required to quarantine on arrival—while travel to “red list” countries has been discouraged.

But the public were left in the dark about whether travel to the remaining “amber list” countries was permitted, after a series of Government ministers gave conflicting advice.

During Prime Ministers’ Questions, Boris Johnson said people “should not be going to an amber list country except for some extreme circumstance,” but the previous day Simon Hart, the Welsh secretary, suggested that going on holiday could qualify as “essential travel.”

Environment Secretary George Eustice told people they could travel to amber list countries as long as they observe quarantine upon their return, while junior minister Gillian Keegan said it was a matter of "personal responsibility".

No travel from England is currently banned or illegal, but a holiday does not count as essential under the current government guidance.

On this week’s episode of the Full Fact podcast, we discuss the Government’s record of communication during the pandemic, and why we all deserve clear, consistent information—especially in an emergency:
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We all deserve good information so we can make informed decisions. This has never been more true than during a pandemic.

It’s not only harmful when the Government and politicians make false claims, but also when they issue unclear, inconsistent and confusing messaging.

We can only find and expose these incidents because of our community of supporters, whose regular donations allow us to deliver good, reliable information to people when they need it most.

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FACT CHECK
Scammers use fake reports of a missing child to target Facebook users ([link removed])

Claims that a girl called Ellie Morrad has gone missing in the UK have been spreading rapidly on Facebook this week.

But these reports are fake. One post says she went missing in St Neots, Cambridgeshire. But another says she went missing in Porthmadog in north west Wales.

The photo accompanying both posts is not of Ellie Morrad but of a girl from Ohio, in the United States, who went missing and was found late last year. This girl is not named Ellie Morrad.

This is the latest in a series of fake missing children reports on Facebook, which are designed to scam people.

Previous posts have been used to collect personal details from victims in schemes known as “phishing scams”.

These latest posts link to web pages which have been flagged by Google as “deceptive”. On clicking through, the pages display 404 error messages.
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FACT CHECK
Claims about teeth whitening inquiries don’t add up ([link removed])

Last weekend, the Mail on Sunday, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People all reported that Londoners were the “most likely” people in the country to search for teeth whitening treatments.

But each publication made a crucial error in its reporting.

The figures used do not adjust for population. And so it’s unsurprising that London—by far the most populous city in the country—would account for the highest number of search enquiries about teeth whitening.

But that does not mean that Londoners are more likely to enquire about teeth whitening than people elsewhere in the country.

The Sunday Mirror and Sunday People shared their data with Full Fact.

The findings—which came from a US dental company called Express Dentist—were indeed based on raw “average monthly search results”, rather than a measure which controlled for population size.
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MORE FACT CHECKS
Also this week...
* The risk of dying from a Covid vaccine is lower than 1 in 31,000 ([link removed])
* Dead birds in India were not killed by 5G ([link removed])
* The so-called ‘Indian variants’ have been found in lots of countries ([link removed])
* Covid-19 vaccines haven’t caused 3,362 deaths in America ([link removed])
* These cars were not abandoned because their batteries failed ([link removed])
* Claims about Russia, Covid-19 and 5G are almost all false ([link removed])
* Police tweet about helicopter joy riders in Merseyside is fake ([link removed])

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