Hated Covid tourist forms to be ditched before Easter
COVID foreign travel forms look set to be ditched by Easter after Health Secretary Sajid Javid backed the move.
Government sources said Mr Javid was happy to see the passenger locator form (PLF) scrapped in the next few weeks.
The move should pave the way for the muchreviled form, which travellers have to complete before returning to the UK, to be abolished in time for the Easter school holidays at the start of April.
It comes after reports that Mr Javid’s Health Department was slowing down moves to remove the Covid-related bureaucracy.
Sources close to Mr Javid warned last night the decision was not down to the Health Secretary alone. But his views emerged just days after Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed that the requirement to fill in the complicated form would be reviewed by Easter.
Scrapping the forms, seen as drag on British holiday firms as well as a bureaucratic nightmare for travellers, would be hugely welimmediately comed by the industry.
Tory MP Huw Merriman, chairman of the Commons transport committee, last week urged Mr Johnson to ‘give the travel industry a much-needed shot in the arm’ by getting rid of the PLF by Easter.
Allies of Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said he was also fully behind abolishing the forms, saying: ‘Shapps is eager to have them ditched – ideally, by the Easter break.’
But they suggested there was ‘bureaucratic inertia’ – suggesting the Home Office ‘like them because they like to keep tabs’.
However, Home Office sources said last night they expected the forms to be axed.
Labour MP Ben Bradshaw, a member of the transport committee, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘Now that people can freely wander round the UK with Covid, the passenger locator form is totally redundant. It should be scrapped as it’s holding back the recovery in our travel and transport sectors compared with other countries.
‘The UK should do what most other European countries are doing, which is simply check vaccine or test status at check-in without the need to fill it this overcomplicated Orwellian form.’
A spokesman for the Association of British Travel Agents said: ‘While recent simplifications of the PLF have helped, the UK’s system for collecting passenger data is much more complex than that used by many other countries. It’s time to get people travelling again.’
A Government spokesman said ‘no decisions have been taken’ on scrapping PLFs, adding: ‘We have already simplified the forms as part of our efforts to make travel easier.
‘We will keep all measures under review and will be updating our contingency plans to fight any new variants ahead of Easter.’
● British Airways is coming under pressure to improve its IT systems after the airline cancelled all shorthaul flights from Heathrow until midday yesterday.
BA said the problem was related to a hardware issue and was not a cyber attack. Passengers criticised the ‘absolute chaos’ at Heathrow, while BA said: ‘We have let our customers down and we will do everything we can to make this up to them.’