Scots will be able to travel to some countries overseas without having to quarantine on return, if proposals currently under consideration by the Scottish Government are confirmed.

The PA news agency understands the Scottish Government is currently considering operating a traffic light system similar to the one confirmed for England.

If Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon confirms adoption of the proposed system at her planned coronavirus briefing on Tuesday it is expected to come into force on May 24.

Under the system countries would be classified as green, amber and red and a review would take place every four weeks.

The Scottish Government said it would not comment on reports ahead of Tuesday’s coronavirus briefing.

Current guidelines say people “must not travel into or out of Scotland from outside the UK without an essential reason“.

They add: “Even where travel is allowed, you should still avoid travelling abroad if possible.”

People coming to Scotland are currently likely to need to isolate in a hotel or at home for at least 10 days after arriving and, by law, must have proof of a negative test before travelling.

Under the traffic light system in England, people returning from a green destination – Portugal, Gibraltar and Israel among others – will not be required to self-isolate and are only required to take one post-arrival coronavirus test.

Holidaymakers who go against the guidance and travel to an amber destination – such as Spain, Italy and France – must self-isolate at home for 10 days and take two post-arrival tests.

Turkey, the Maldives and Nepal were added to the red list on Saturday, meaning anyone returning from those destinations to England after 4am on Wednesday will be required to stay in a quarantine hotel for 11 nights at a cost of £1,750 for solo travellers.

The traffic light system will be reviewed every three weeks, and there are four key tests the Government will take into account when deciding how to categorise a country.

These include the percentage of the country’s population to have been vaccinated, the rate of infection, the prevalence of variants of concern and the country’s access to reliable scientific data and genomic sequencing.