Travellers face up to 10 years in jail if they attempt to conceal a trip to a designated ‘red zone’ country, as ministers tighten borders to prevent the spread of new strains of coronavirus.
All international arrivals to England will also have to take two Covid tests from Monday, health secretary Matt Hancock said, while a long-trailed system of hotel quarantine for some will finally begin.
Mr Hancock repeated his claim that the UK is “turning a corner” in the battle against the global pandemic.
But he warned that ministers “must protect this hard fought progress”.
“Everyone has a part to play in making our borders safe”, Mr Hancock told the Commons, a process that was crucial to “securely” restarting travel again in the future.
From Monday, UK nationals arriving from 33 “red list” countries will be required to spend 10 days in a government-designated hotel, where they will be charged £1,750 for their stay.
Ministers have already signed contracts with 16 hotels for the programme, which will involve “visible security”.
Those who lie on their passenger locator forms about where they have been in a bid to conceal a visit to a ‘red zone’, or high-risk, country face up to 10 years in jail, Mr Hancock said.
Passengers will have to stay in their hotel room during their quarantine.
Mr Hancock also confirmed a new “enhanced” testing regime for all international travellers, which will also come into force on Monday.
Those isolating at home, instead of in a hotel, must get a test two and eight days into their 10-day quarantine period, he said.
The burden for ensuring the rules are not flouted will fall on the travel industry as well as on individuals, he added.
“Passenger carriers will have a duty in law to make sure that passengers have signed up for these new arrangements before they travel, and will be fined if they don’t, and 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 for any international arrival who fails to take the 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 a designated hotel.” In another security measure, all tests will have to be booked before passengers are allowed to travel to the UK.
If either of the post-arrival tests is positive, arrivals will be forced to quarantine for another 10 days. All positive tests will also automatically undergo genomic sequencing to confirm whether or not they show a variant of the disease.
Earlier this week ministers moved to reassure the public that the coronavirus vaccines currently in use in the UK were effective, even against the a new variant of the strain from south Africa.
Teams are carrying out door to door testing in a number of postcodes in England to prevent community transmission of the South African variant.
A small study has also suggested that the Oxford/ AstraZeneca jab does not prevent moderate forms of the South African virus.
But England’s deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van-Tam predicted that the South African strain would not become dominant in the UK, as he urged the public not to put off receiving a vaccination.
If necessary ministers could provide a ‘booster’ vaccine this winter to deal with various strains, he suggested.
Despite the tough measures, the shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth told Mr Hancock the public wanted ministers to go further.
“Our first line of defence is surely to do everything we can to stop (new variants)arising in the first place. That means securing our borders to isolate new variants as they come in. He’s announced a detailed package today but he hasn’t announced comprehensive quarantine controls at the borders,” he said.
“So why then when over half of the countries where the South Africa variant has been identified – why are over half of them not on the so-called red list?
“And indeed according to newspaper reports he wanted to go further with more extensive quarantine arrangements. I want that as well, the British public want that as well, so I will work with him to make that happen so we can strengthen our borders and fix any holes in this nation’s defences.”
