Two-week quarantine to be imposed on UK arrivals from June 8, Priti Patel says

The rule will not apply to people coming from Ireland, medics tackling Covid-19 and seasonal agricultural workers
Imogen Braddick22 May 2020

A two-week quarantine on people arriving in the UK will be imposed from June 8, the Home Secretary has said.

Speaking in Downing Street on Friday, Priti Patel said people who are obliged to self-isolate will face a £1,000 fine if they break the new rule.

Ms Patel said the mandatory self-isolation would not apply to people coming from Ireland, medics tackling Covid-19 and seasonal agricultural workers.

"We will review these temporary public health measures every three weeks to make sure they are the right ones for our roadmap to recovery," she said.

"And these measures will be introduced from June 8 so that people arriving in the UK will be required to self-isolate for 14 days except for those on a short list of exemptions."

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Passengers will have to fill in a form providing their contact and travel information so they can be traced if infections arise, and they could be contacted regularly during the 14 days and face random checks from public health authorities to ensure their compliance.

Breaches would be punishable with a £1,000 fixed penalty notice in England, or prosecution with an unlimited fine, while devolved nations can set out their own enforcement approaches.

"Arrivals will be required to provide contact and address details to trace them should we need to," Ms Patel said.

She said she was imposing quarantine plans for new arrivals at the time “it will be the most effective”.

“The answer as to why we’re bringing in these measures now is simple: It is to protect that hard-won progress and prevent a devastating resurgence in a second wave of the virus," she said.

“As we are taking this action, we are taking it at a time that it will be the most effective.”

She said that passenger arrivals have been down 99 per cent compared to the previous year but now the peak has passed, steps to “guard against imported cases” must be imposed.

Border Force will be able to refuse entry to foreign citizens who are not UK residents during border checks while removal from the country could be used as a last resort, the Home Office said.

Anyone arriving by air, sea or rail will be advised to use personal transport to head to their accommodation and once there not leave for 14 days.

They will not be allowed to accept visitors, unless they are providing essential support, and should not go out to buy food or other essentials “where they can rely on others”, the department said.

Paul Lincoln, Border Force director general, said spot checks would be carried out on the accuracy of quarantine forms of those arriving into the UK from abroad.

Speaking at the daily Downing Street briefing, he said: “At the border there will be spot checks conducted by Border Force officers.

“Any obvious errors will trigger a requirement for the passenger to complete another form or potentially be refused entry into the UK.”

He said Border Force expected most people to comply with the measures but the agency was ready to act in cases where the rules were not followed.

“Given the high levels of compliance to date, we expect the vast majority of people will take this seriously and do the right thing,” Mr Lincoln added.

Home Secretary Priti Patel made the announcement on Friday
PA

“We will, however, take enforcement action against a small minority of people who may disregard these actions and therefore further endanger people’s lives.”

The Home Office said if accommodation does not meet necessary requirements – with hotels, or with friends and family listed as options – they will have to self-isolate in hotel accommodation arranged by the Government.

Officials said that those the new entrant is staying with would not need to quarantine, but they should avoid contact with each other where possible.

Ms Patel said: “As the world begins to emerge from what we hope is the worst of the coronavirus pandemic, we must look to the future and protect the British public by reducing the risk of cases crossing our border.

“I fully expect the majority of people will do the right thing and abide by these measures. But we will take enforcement action against the minority of people who endanger the safety of others.”​

The Home Secretary said the advice published about quarantining visitors did not have a bearing on holidays, with all but essential travel still advised against by the UK Government.

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Her comments come following a question about whether the new restrictions on visitors would effectively end hopes of people in the UK going on a holiday abroad this summer.

“The advice is not about booking holidays, right now," Ms Patel said. “We are bringing in these measures for very clear reasons, as I have outlined.

“The other point to note is that advice from Government and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office is you’re not to travel and to please follow the advice they are putting on their website, which is nothing but essential travel.

“This is absolutely not about booking holidays. We want to avoid a second wave and that is absolutely vital.”

The quarantine announcement will likely provoke fresh anger from the aviation industry, with airlines warning the measures could be disastrous for them.

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AFP via Getty Images

Earlier, the chief executive of the Airport Operators Association, Karen Dee, told the Commons Home Affairs Committee that drastic reductions in passengers “may simply lead to a prolonged shutdown of all aviation”.

The Airlines UK trade body said thousands of jobs and the economy’s recovery would be jeopardised by the plan, and called for ministers to carry out “robust, transparent and evidence-led” reviews every three weeks.

Chief executive Tim Alderslade said: “Introducing a quarantine at this stage makes no sense and will mean very limited international aviation at best.

“It is just about the worst thing Government could do if their aim is to restart the economy.”

Brits have been heading to beauty spots in the UK as all but essential travel abroad is still advised against by the Government 
PA

Ms Patel said ministers will work to “find new ways to reopen international travel and tourism in a safe and responsible way”.

She told the daily Downing Street press briefing: “We also recognise how hard these changes will be for our travel sector, and leisure sectors, who are already struggling through these unprecedented times.

“So, across Government, we will continue to work with them and support what is an incredibly dynamic sector to find new ways to reopen international travel and tourism in a safe and responsible way.”

Fresh questions will also be asked why the quarantine measure was not imposed early on in the pandemic.

Home Office chief scientific adviser Professor John Aston said: “The scientific advice so far has been clear: while there has been significant community transmission of the virus within the UK, the impact of putting in place additional border restrictions would have been negligible to the spread of the virus.

“However, the spread of the virus within the UK is now lessening. We have been successful in getting the reproduction number R – the average number of new people infected by one infected person – below 1.

“As the number of infections within the UK drops, we must now manage the risk of transmissions being reintroduced from elsewhere.”

The Home Office said arrivals would be encouraged to download the NHS contact tracing app at the border “once rolled out nationally”.

A full list of exemptions from the measure will be published online, but it will include road haulage and freight workers, medical professionals travelling to help the coronavirus effort, anyone moving from within the common travel area covering Ireland, the Channel Island and the Isle of Man, and seasonal agricultural workers who will self-isolate on the property they are working.

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