Scots ‘ jumped the gun’ on new quarantine, UK minister claims
● Escalating row between Holyrood and Westminster over different travel restrictions
The Scottish Government has declared its quarantine decisions are based on available “scientific evidence” amid an escalating row with the UK government over restrictions.
A spokesman for the Scottish Government described the decision made by England to announce Portugal would remain on its travel exemption list as “unfortunate” and strongly rejected the suggestion that First Minister Nicola Sturgeon had “jumped the gun”.
The comments came amid fresh meetings between the Scottish Conservatives and airport bosses yesterday. The party’s transport spokesman Graham Simpson has called on the Scottish Government to create a passenger testing regime in a bid to save the ailing aviation industry.
The row between Holyrood and Westminster flared again yesterday when UK transport secretary Grant Shapps,above,s aid the decisions by Scotland and Wales to change their guidance on quarantine when returning from Portugal “creates confusion”.
He said: “I do realise it creates confusion for people not to have a single rule, but we do have this devolved approach throughout the United Kingdom and I can only be responsible for the English part of that.”
He said the UK government’s review concluded no changes were necessary to England’s rules, partly because test positivity in Portugal came down while the number of cases overall in Greece had fallen.
He told BBC Radio 4: “The Scots decided, without using the Joint Biosecurity Centre data for this particular decision, that the people
from Greece would be excluded and sort of jumped the gun on that. And it is their right to do it, but it doesn’t make the overall message any clearer.”
However, the Scottish Government insisted the decision was made based on appropriate scientific evidence and criticised the UK government for the “unfortunate” decision to keep Portugal exempt from quarantine – a decision it claimed was made without discussions between ministers from all four countries in the UK.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Our decisions on quarantine measures for travellers are based on the scientific evidence available.
“We have, for the most part, aligned closely with the approaches taken by the other three governments and regular discussions continue with them.
“But ultimately, we make judgements on how best to keep the people of Scotland safe and that sometimes means our decisions differ from those made by the other three governments.
“In the case of Greece, we had a worrying number of people in Scotland who had tested positive for Covid- 19 and who had returned from Greece within seven days of the onset of symptoms.
“The Scottish Government could not afford to ignore that growing threat to public health.
“In the case of Portugal, it was unfortunate that the UK government announced their decision yesterday before ministers from England, Scotland and Northern Ireland met and before considering the latest Joint Biosecurity Centre data. This indicated a significant rise in both the prevalence of the virus in Portugal and in test positivity.
“As ministers have said repeatedly, we are in the midst of a global pandemic and the situation in many countries can change suddenly. Therefore, people should think very hard before committing to non- essential travel abroad.”
There had been speculation Westminster would reimpose the requirement on Portugal due to a spike in Covid- 19 cases, leading many holidaymakers to pay hundreds of pounds to fly home this week.
In Wales, the need to isolate for 14 days when arriving from Portugal, Gibraltar and seven Greek islands came into force at 4am yesterday.
Meanwhile, passengers arriving into Scotland from Portugal will have to quarantine from 4am today, as well as those arriving from French Polynesia. Travellers from anywhere in Greece must have entered quarantine on returning from Thursday.
There were 418 coronavirus cases recorded in Portugal on Thursday, which was the country’s largest daily amount since 10 July and brings its seven- day rate of cases per 100,000 people up to 23.1.
A rate of 20 is the threshold above which the UK government has considered triggering quarantine conditions.
But the decision to add Portugal to the Scottish quarantine list was criticised by aviation industry figures.
Mike Tibbert, vice- president of Scottish Passenger Agents’ Association, which represents travel agents, accused the Scottish Government of “toing and fro- ing” with quarantine restrictions.
He said :“It feels as if the government is playing games, with all its half announcements and teasers.
“The entire travel sector and the travelling public need consistency and clear, well- timed messaging, not a drip, drip of what might or might not happen and which country might be added to or removed from the ‘ safe list’.
“But the to- ing and fro- ing on the safe list versus quarantine is actually distracting from the main issue, which is the total lack of immediate support for the travel sector and the complete absence of a strategic plan to save future travel.
“Once lost, our connectivity to the rest of the world – and consequently theirs to us – will disappear. And once this happens and we lose flight routes, it will be years before we can rebuild these.
“Is the government considering the impact this will have on Scottish and UK economy? It’s time that everyone realised this is not just about sunseeking holidaymakers and is everything about the devastation this will have on our ability to do business with the rest of the world and vice versa.”
Meanwhile, the Scottish Conservatives called on Ms Sturgeon to introduce passenger testing at airports – a measure many in the aviation industry argue would help limit the need for quarantine.
Mr Simpson said: “Over the last 24 hours, I have held discussions with senior management teams at Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen airports.
“Scotland’s airports have told me clearly that the Scottish Government must agree a passenger testing regime immediately. They cannot wait any longer. Even the threat of quarantine is stopping people from flying.
“Thousands of jobs are already under threat. The airline industry is at risk of collapse and the SNP government must get round the table with airport bosses and tell them how they intend to stop the situation spiralling any further.”
However, Mr Shapps said testing at airports was not a “silver bullet solution” to end quarantining and the “vast majority” of asymptomatic cases would not be detected by one test alone..