Border Force checking less than third of arrivals for tracing forms

FEWER than a third of arrivals to the UK are being checked to ensure they have forms to aid test and trace efforts, under targets set for Border Force officials.

It raises the prospect that hundreds of thousands of people have entered the country without documents being inspected.

Arrivals in the UK from abroad must submit a passenger locator form online beforehand, to be shown at the border either in printed form or on a mobile device. Question marks over enforcement have also been raised by figures showing that just five people have been fined £100 for breaching their quarantine once back in the UK.

The Daily Telegraph has established there is no surveillance tracking the levels of infections coming back from holidaymakers from each country unless they report symptoms and have a test. Everyone returning from countries which are not on Britain’s “travel corridor” is instructed to stay at home for 14 days, and to provide the Government with contact details and the place they will be self-isolating.

Around 1,000 people a day are then randomly contacted by phone and asked a series of questions by Public Health England contractors but police are only sent to their doors to check if they suspect breaches during the call.

Dr Bharat Pankhania, expert in infectious disease control, said: “This is a failure of the system. The quarantine system is just symbolic – there is no monitoring, no idea of compliance, they aren’t using sanctions.”

The senior clinical lecturer at Exeter University said the management of the system was an attempt by officials to show action was being taken, rather than to collect crucial information.

“They want to be seen to be acting but actually they need to be dynamic and responsive to threats, and they can’t do that unless they collect the information,” he said.