Travel rule breakers face 10 years in prison or £10,000 fines

UK arrivals who flout Government travel rules face up to £10,000 in fines or a decade in prison. Travellers who fail to quarantine in Government approved hotels after coming from red-list countries can be fined up to £10,000 under strict new rules. Those who attempt to hide a visit to a red-list country could be sentenced to up to 10 years in jail. Arrivals who fail to take a first mandatory Covid test face a fine of £1,000, while this will rise to £2,000 for not taking a second test.

A member of the public takes a swab for a coronavirus test at a temporary COVID-19 testing facility (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)

Matt Hancock set out the harsh new penalties in the Commons today, amid fears more cases of highly infectious Covid strains will enter the country. The measures are set to come into force this week in England, although discussions are ongoing with the devolved nations to implement similar systems. The health secretary said he ‘made no apologies for the strength of these measures because we’re dealing with one of the strongest threats to our public health that we’ve faced as a nation’.

He said: ‘People who flout these rules are putting us all at risk. Passenger carriers will have a duty in law to make sure passengers have signed up for these new arrangements before they travel, and will be fined if they don’t.

 

A sign directs passengers to a Covid-19 testing centre at Terminal 5 of London Heathrow Airport
in west London on February 9, 2021 (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)

‘We will be putting in place tough fines for people who don’t comply. This includes a £1,000 penalty for any international arrival who fails to take a mandatory test, a £2,000 penalty to any international arrival who fails to take a second mandatory test, as well as automatically extending their quarantine period to 14 days. ‘And a £5,000 fixed penalty notice rising to £10,000 for arrivals who fail to quarantine in the designated hotel. ‘We’re also coming down hard on people who provide false information on the passenger locator form.

Anyone who lies on the passenger locator form and tries to conceal that they’ve been in a country on the red list in the 10 days before arrival here will face a prison sentence of up to 10 years.’ UK and Irish residents who have been in red list countries in the past 10 days will have to quarantine in assigned hotel rooms from February 15. They will have to pay £1,750 for a package that includes a hotel stay, travel and Covid testing. Before travelling, all passengers must book and pay for their ‘quarantine package’ online via a booking system which will go live on Thursday. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.  For more stories like this, check our news page.

 

 

Source:metro.co.uk/2021/02/09