STURGEON’S ‘HIGH-RISK’ TRAVEL BAN
Scots face threat of fines in new crackdown
THOUSANDS of Scots families will be banned from visiting areas with low coronavirus rates under Nicola Sturgeon’s new travel crackdown.
The First Minister yesterday confirmed she is considering regulations which would see people banned from travelling from areas of Scotland with high Covid rates into those with lower case numbers.
The plan, being considered as part of Miss Sturgeon’s lockdown tiers system for the next phase of tackling the virus, could see people facing on-the- spot fines if they ignore the rules.
She wants any new rules to apply to travel within Scotland, as well as cross-Border travel from other parts of the UK.
Boris Johnson yesterday warned her that introducing regulation
would be ‘ extremely difficult and resourceintensive’ and legally ‘complex’. But the Prime Minister has agreed to convene urgent talks between the nations about how to deal with travel issues across the whole of the UK.
Miss Sturgeon yesterday welcomed the talks, saying: ‘Obviously we will, in parallel, continue to consider what steps we might want to take.
‘Enforcement is one of the issues we have to consider in all of this. I said pretty candidly in parliament yesterday, whether you have guidance advising people not to travel or the law says you shouldn’t travel, it stands to reason you can’t have a police officer checking every car or every journey people are making.
‘Whatever the system is based on – guidance or regulation – it requires a lot of willingness on the part of people to comply with that.
‘So one of the things we will be weighing up and deciding what to do is whether a regulatory approach, coupled with enforcement, gives us a more meaningful way to restrict travel from high to low prevalence areas.’
Guidance in Scotland already advises people against travelling from high-risk coronavirus hotspots, such as the five health boards around the Central Belt, which includes Glasgow and Edinburgh. Similar guidance also applies to England’s ‘tier 3’ areas, including Liverpool.
The Welsh Government went much further and, from 6pm yesterday, people living in high or very high risk parts of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland are banned from entering Wales. Number plate recognition cameras are to be used to enforce the rules.
Asked if any enforceable rules would apply to people travelling between high-risk areas like Greater Glasgow and Clyde to low-risk parts of Scotland such as the Highlands, Miss Sturgeon said: ‘Any travel restrictions, should you decide that they have to be mandatory – this is not just about cross-Border, which is why I keep saying this is not a constitutional point or political point – it’s about high to low prevalence.
‘If that is within Scotland, or within England,
‘Trying to strike as much balance as we can’
or within Wales, then you have to consider that there. But equally you have to consider it if it is between any of these countries.
‘My advice to anybody in Greater Glasgow and Clyde is not to go to the Highlands unless you really need to. We didn’t go as far as saying to people over the October holidays if you’ve got a break planned cancel it because we’re trying to strike as much balance here as we can.
‘But my advice now to people in Greater Glasgow and Clyde is if you don’t need to travel outside Greater Glasgow and Clyde then don’t do it.’
Miss Sturgeon wrote to Mr Johnson on Wednesday evening to say she was ‘keen to establish if it is possible to agree a fournation approach to the issue’.
In his response – seen by the Mail – Mr Johnson said the whole of the UK faces a ‘ shared challenge’ tackling Covid.
He said all parts of the UK should act together to limit the spread of the virus, ‘including by minimising transmission from areas of high incidence to those where it is lower’, and said his guidance for ‘ very high’ level areas tells people to avoid travelling into or out of these areas, and stressed they should not be travelling to other parts of the UK for holidays.
However, the Prime Minister insisted that he does not believe legal enforcement is the answer.
He said: ‘Effective enforcement would be extremely difficult and resource-intensive.
‘Further, placing the requirements in law across the multiple areas of England, with all the requisite exemptions, would be complex – as SAGE (Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies) have noted in their recently published paper on NPIs (non-pharmaceutical interventions).’
Despite his concerns, Mr Johnson told Miss Sturgeon that he
would ask Michael Gove, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, to ‘urgently’ convene a meeting with devolved leaders to consider the issue ‘and what more we can do together to reduce the spread of the virus across the UK’.
He added: ‘I will continue to do whatever it takes to protect our nation. As ever, I offer my ongoing commitment to collaboration and al i gnment in decisions and approach across the four parts of the UK, wherever it is appropriate and possible to do so.’
Asked about comments from the
Police Federation of England and Wales which warns the efforts in Wales are ‘unenforceable’, Miss Sturgeon said she has ‘ongoing discussions’ with Police Scotland on all regulation and enforcement.
She added: ‘Anything you do to try to stop a virus spreading, if you put it in law with enforcement attached, of course there are always going to be practical challenges... We have to make a judgment.’
In Scotland, 601 Covid-19 patients were in hospital as of Thursday, up from 377 a week earlier, with 51 in ventilation beds, up from 31.
There were nine more deaths of coronavirus patients recorded in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of fatalities to 2,594.
A total of 1,196 people have tested positive for coronavirus over the same time period, while the number of people being admitted to hospital with the virus continues to grow.
Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford insisted the travel ban was needed to stop those living in hotspots bringing the virus over the border.
The Welsh Labour leader also said he was considering increasing restrictions further by putting the country into a full three-week ‘firebreak’ lockdown next week.
Although no decision has yet been made, he said talks will be ongoing over the weekend and an announcement would be made on Monday.
The travel ban applies to anyone living in tier two or three hotspots in England, plus the Central Belt of Scotland, and the whole of Northern Ireland. Those who ignore the restrictions will be breaking the law and could face fixed penalty notices starting at £50.
Holiday providers in Wales should also not accept bookings from people in these areas, Mr Drakeford said, potentially throwing the holiday plans of many into chaos.
‘Reduce spread of virus across UK’