Quarantine for foreign arrivals
Quarantine for people coming into the UK will be introduced “as soon as possible” after the lockdown starts to be eased tomorrow, according to the guidance.
All international arrivals apart from those on a “short” list of exemptions will be required to supply their contact and accommodation information and will be expected to self-isolate for 14 days. They will also be strongly advised to download and use the NHS contact tracing app.
“Where international travellers are unable to demonstrate where they would self-isolate, they will be required to do so in accommodation arranged by the Government,” said the document.
The guidance does not spell out how the quarantine will be enforced and by whom, but it is expected that those who refuse will face fines of up to £1,000 and deportation.
The document does not address suggestions that French travellers may be exempt from the quarantine after President Emmanuel Macron demanded concessions in a phone call with Boris Johnson on Sunday.
Ministers have been warned that an exemption for the French is likely to be illegal under EU law, leaving the UK open to a court challenge that would force exemptions to be extended to all other EU countries.
Tony Smith, former director general of the Border Force, said: “It would be difficult to see how this could work operationally if you had a different process for the French.”
The only exemptions listed in the guidance include journeys within the common travel area, which covers Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man and for key freight arrivals such as medical supplies and food.
Law enforcement officers could also be exempt if quarantine impeded “work supporting national security or critical infrastructure and to meet the UK’S international obligations”. The guidance said exemptions will be kept under “regular review”.
Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, said there would “some flexibility” but he added: “It will cover in principle all people coming in whether it is to ports or to airports.”
The guidance said quarantine was necessary to “manage the risk of transmissions being reintroduced from abroad” as social contact increases.
“These international travel measures will not come into force on May 13 but will be introduced as soon as possible. Further details and guidance will be set out shortly, and the measures and list of exemptions will be kept under regular review.”
The Government refused to introduce quarantine or close UK borders from the start and through the peak of the pandemic because scientific advisers argued that it would have a “negligible” effect while domestic transition rates were high.
It now argues that as it declines, foreign arrivals potentially with the disease could have a proportionately more serious effect.
‘There is no need to increase the rate of infections and put lives at risk by getting MPS and staff to travel hundreds of miles back and forth to London’