BORDERING ON FARCICAL!
Sturgeon forced to scrap plans to put people travelling to Scotland from English airports in quarantine hotels – as police say: We WON’T carry out checks at the Border. It’s...
NICOLA Sturgeon has been forced to scrap controversial plans to quarantine all travellers entering Scotland – only hours before the strict crackdown was due to come into force.
In a move critics have described as ‘chaotic and haphazard’, the First Minister has dropped a significant part of her proposed new Covid quarantine rules.
From tomorrow, anyone flying directly into Scotland from any international destination will be forced to isolate for 10 days in a designated quarantine hotel.
But people who fly into an English airport and then travel on to Scotland will now NOT have to go to a quarantine hotel, but will be asked to self-isolate instead.
The rule change creates a huge loophole in the First Minister’s plans, as Scots may be tempted to book holidays in Europe, if they can travel home via an English airport and avoid a £1,750 bill for a ten-day stay in a quarantine hotel.
Ms Sturgeon had said anyone breaching quarantine rules could face a fine and a charge of culpable and reckless conduct. However, her
government’s last minute changes will leave travellers confused about the new rules.
It also follows a row between the Scottish and UK Governments over plans for quarantine hotels.
Health Secretary Jeane Freeman criticised UK ministers for failing to adopt a policy as strict as Scotland’s by only insisting on quarantine for travellers from countries on a ‘red list’, and not all countries as the SNP Government specifies.
But Westminster sources said it was up to the Scottish Government to deliver on policies they had put in place and how they would ensure their quarantine rules are followed.
A Scottish Government report – Coronavirus: International Travel and Quarantine – was issued late on Friday night and said people travelling back through another part of the UK or the Republic of Ireland need only selfisolate and not necessarily book a stay in a quarantine hotel.
It states: ‘If you have arrived from the Common Travel Area (the rest of the UK, Ireland, the Channel Islands or Isle of Man) but were in another country before that... you need to complete the passenger locator form and complete your self-isolation period of 10 days, unless you are from an exempt country or territory.’
This is different to the rules for people flying directly into Scotland.
Here it states: ‘Everyone who arrives directly in Scotland by air from outside the Common Travel Area must provide a coronavirus (Covid-19) test and get a negative result during the three days before you travel... (and) book and pay for managed isolation in a quarantine hotel for at least 10 days from arrival.’
The Scottish Government believes that, as the number of Covid cases gradually falls, it is crucial to stop new cases and variants entering from abroad.
As it became increasingly clear that the UK Government would not help Scottish Ministers enforce a blanket ban, Ms Sturgeon sought to put pressure on Police Scotland to patrol the Border. But one senior police source said Chief Constable Iain Livingstone had made it clear that this would not be happening.
The source said: ‘Police Scotland believes policing the Border for Covid intrusions is impossible.
‘Scotland has 6,250 miles of border and coastline, including the islands. The only way that police are going to get involved with anyone crossing Scottish borders is if there is intelligence pointing to criminality.
‘The Scottish Government can say what it wants, but the force is not going to be stopping people crossing the Border, or doing any random stops and searches, unless there is a reason flagged up to them, or one becomes apparent.’
MSP Graham Simpson, transport spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives, said: ‘This is all too common of the SNP’s haphazard management of new coronavirus measures.
‘Time and time again we see the SNP drip feeding information on new measures, giving individuals, families and businesses little time to prepare.
‘This then causes chaos and confusion on enforcement and compliance. We need to see this urgently clarified so that people are not inadvertently breaking the law when these new rules on managed quarantine are introduced on Monday.’
Colin Smyth, Scottish Labour transport spokesman, added: ‘The First Minister described the Border as “leaky” but it’s her policies that are less than watertight.
‘To sound tougher than England, the Scottish Government claimed anyone flying into an English airport en route to Scotland from a non-red list country would need to quarantine in a hotel. But hours before the new rules come into effect that tough talk is in tatters.
‘The idea of controls at Gretna to try to find someone who may have landed at Manchester airport is pie in the sky.’
And Willie Rennie, leader of the
‘All too common of SNP’s haphazard management’
Scottish Liberal Democrats, said: ‘Ministers have a responsibility to be clear about what is expected of people, but this Government often fails to achieve that, despite the First Minister appearing on TV every day.
‘Rather than always attacking each other, the UK and Scottish Governments need to work together to develop an integrated plan that works for the whole UK to stop the spread of the virus.’
It is understood that travel bosses discussed quarantine hotel plans with the Scottish Government
on Friday. However, by 5pm they were still waiting on official guidance, despite the scheme due to start tomorrow morning.
Last week the Scottish Mail on
Sunday revealed that airport and hotel bosses had not been contacted by the Scottish Government, almost a week after Ms Sturgeon first announced the hardline policy of quarantining all international travellers.
A spokesman for the Scottish Government said yesterday: ‘We’ve always been clear that we cannot unilaterally implement immediate managed quarantine for people who arrive in other parts of the UK before travelling onto Scotland.
‘We have asked the UK Government to work with us to address this, but for now such travellers will be required to isolate at home.’
‘Idea of controls at Gretna is pie in the sky’