08 Jun COVID-19: Who will be exempt from the UK 2 weeks quarantine?

On 22 May 2020, the Home Secretary Ms Priti Patel stated that any travellers arriving in the UK from abroad will be required to self-isolate for 14 days, and they will be fined up to £1,000 or removed from the UK if they fail to do so. The new rules will also apply to British citizens returning from abroad.

Any passengers arriving in the UK by plane, ferry or train will need to fill out an online locator contact form. If they refuse, they may receive a Fixed Penalty Notice in England. Border Force officers will also undertake spot checks at the border.

In addition, travellers will need to provide the UK Border Force officials with an address where they would self-isolate, otherwise accommodation would be arranged by the government.

The new rules will be implemented from 8 June 2020, and it will be subject to review after an initial three weeks.

Some travellers will exempt from the UK border rules:

• Travellers from within the Common Travel Area (Ireland, Isle of Man and Channel Islands);
• Members of diplomatic missions and consular posts in the UK, officers, servants or representatives of international organisations, representatives at an international or UK conference granted privileges and immunities, and their families or dependents;
• Representatives of a foreign country or territory and representatives of the British overseas territories, along with their families or dependents travelling to the UK to undertake official business with the UK;
• Defence personnel, visiting forces and government contractors who the Ministry of Defence has confirmed are required to deliver essential defence activities;
• UK officials and contractors required to work on essential border security duties;
• Non-UK officials and contractors required to work on essential border security duties,
• Crown servants or government contractors travelling to the UK for essential government work;
• People who live in the UK but work in another country and travel between the UK and country of work at least once a week;
• People who live outside the UK but work in the UK and travel between their country of residence and the UK at least once a week;
• Drivers of goods vehicles or public service vehicles and other employees of community licence holders for the international carriage of goods or passengers by coach and bus;
• People transiting airside (individuals who arrive in the UK but do not pass border control);
• Civil aviation inspectors engaged on inspection duties;
• Eurotunnel train drivers and crew, Eurotunnel Shuttle drivers, freight train drivers, crew and essential cross-border rail freight workers operating through the Channel Tunnel;
• Drivers and crew of trains operated by Eurostar International Limited, essential cross-border workers working for Eurostar International Limited;
• Operational, rail maintenance, security and safety workers working on the Channel Tunnel system;
• Workers engaged in essential or emergency works to the rail network as part of a specialist team with or for Network Rail;
• Seamen and masters as defined in section 313(1) Merchant Shipping Act 1995, maritime pilots as defined in para 22(1) of schedule 3A of the Merchant Shipping Act 1995, and inspectors and surveyors of ships appointed under section 256 of the Merchant Shipping Act 1995;
• Pilots and crew, as defined in paragraph 1 of Schedule 1 to the Air Navigation Order 2016(h), where such crew have travelled to the UK in the course of their work;
• Seasonal agricultural workers who have an offer of employment for seasonal work to carry out specific activities in edible horticulture on a named farm;
• Workers engaged in essential or emergency works, related to water supplies and sewerage services;
• Workers with specialist technical skills for essential or emergency works or services (including commissioning, maintenance, and repairs and safety checks) to ensure the continued production, supply, movement, manufacture, storage or preservation of goods;
• Workers with specialist technical skills required for essential or emergency works (including commissioning, maintenance, repairs and safety checks) or to fulfil contractual obligations or warranty specifications in, or in connection with, waste management facilities used for the management, sorting, treatment, recovery, or disposal of waste (including energy from waste);
• Workers with specialist technical skills required for essential or emergency works to ensure the continued safe and secure operations of generating stations, gas or electricity transmission or distribution networks, electricity interconnectors, gas terminals or district or communal heat networks;
• Workers required for the continued safe and secure operation, maintenance and essential support services for offshore oil and gas infrastructure in the UK;
• Workers with specialist technical skills required for essential or emergency works to ensure the continued safe and secure operations of space infrastructure;
• Nuclear personnel who are essential to the safe and secure operations of a licensed nuclear site;
• Nuclear emergency responder;
• International nuclear safeguards and chemical industry inspectors, representing the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Euratom;
• Specialist aerospace engineers, or specialist workers responsible for ensuring the safe operation of aircraft;
• Workers with specialist technical skills required for essential or emergency works to ensure the continued safe and secure operations of a downstream oil facility that has a capacity in excess of 20,000 tonnes;
• Postal workers involved in the transport of mail into and out of the UK;
• Individuals arriving to attend pre-arranged treatment, when receiving that treatment in the UK;
• Registered health or care professionals travelling to the UK to provide essential healthcare, including where this is not related to coronavirus;
• If you’ve travelled to the UK for the purpose of transporting, to a healthcare provider in the UK, material which consists of, or includes, human cells or blood which are to be used for the purpose of providing healthcare;
• Qualified persons and responsible persons for human and veterinary medicines, clinical trials, clinical investigations and pharmacovigilance;
• Quality assurance inspectors for human and veterinary medicines;
• Sponsors and essential persons needed for clinical trials or studies;
• People involved in essential maintenance and repair of data infrastructure required to reduce and resolve outages, or in the provision of goods and services to support these activities;
• Information technology or telecommunications professionals whose expertise is required to provide an essential or emergency response to threats and incidents relating to the security of any network and information system and ensure the continued operation of any network and information system;
• People engaged in urgent or essential work on electronic communications networks,
• People engaged in urgent or essential work for the BBC’s broadcasting transmission network and services;
• International prison escorts, designated by the relevant Minister under section 5(3) of the Repatriation of Prisoners Act 1984(a).

For more detailed information, please refer to the following website: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-travellers-exempt-from-uk-border-rules/coronavirus-covid-19-travellers-exempt-from-uk-border-rules.

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