Her Majesties Goverment – in its infintite wisdom is to impose fines for those who are departing England to head off on holiday.
The price? £5000 per person.
Are you sure you want to leave the Hotel California? Such a lovely place. Such a lovely place…
This is due to voted into legislation on Thursday, and due to come in next week. From next week the ban on leaving the UK will become a specific law, backed up by the threat of the fine.
Currently, foreign holidays are not allowed under the “stay at home” rule which ends on Monday. The current plans call for this to be lifted at the earliest by 17th May. This new legislation however will push that date back to the 30th June at the earliest.
The travel ban does not apply to those going to the common travel area of the Channel Islands, Isle of Man and the Republic of Ireland unless that is not the final destination.
This is now under a change consideration due to a surge of COVID cases in Europe.
Travel is currently limited under the stay at home rules, with the following reasons allowed
- Work
- Charity services
- Study
- Elite Sportsperson, Elite Sportsperson’s coach, or parent/guardian of the Elite Sportsperson
- Legal Proceedings
- The purchase of property
- Medical reasons and provision of care
- Funeral attendance
- Voting in an election
A full list can be found at https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2021/364/schedule/5/made
If you want to leave the UK, you need to complete a Declaration to Travel, with your reasons.
Returning to the UK, entry is limited, with extra rules placed on those arriving from Red List countries.
Waiting for the Global Travel Travel Taskforce review
The travel review that is promised by Government is due on 12th April. What that will deliver, how they will zone countries and so on will be revealed there. It is expected that a traffic light system will be implemented to show what sort of travel might be allowed.
Except, its not just holidays
Whilst people may be clambering to get away from the United Kingdom after a full year of on and off lockdowns, families and relationships will continue to suffer from them unable to reunite in person.
And its a sad state of affairs.
For now, sit tight – it’s going to be a bumpy few weeks as Her Majesties Government gets its finger out and ponder how it gets out of the mess it made in the name of “public safety”.
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It seems that these policies are rather arbitrary and not necessarily grounded in science. That may cause some serious problems if many people find the rules random and unfair.
I accept these policies are really aimed at “the next wave” and will have some teething problems. As a UK citizen, I can return to the UK legally (and I am not in a red list location) but if I did so, I would be “trapped” and prevented from returning to my “other” home (in a location where I also have citizenship). The only distinction in the schedule is “not normally resident” which can mean many things in UK law and of course many people have multiple places of residence. It would be great if you could ask for clarification, but we know the officials themselves are still grappling with the details