Scotland orders hotel quarantine for all air passengers and describes Westminster policy as ‘not sufficient’

Staff hold a sign at a Covid-19 testing centre at Glasgow Airport
PA
April Roach @aprilroach289 February 2021

Scotland will be going a step further than the new travel restrictions announced by Westminster by requiring all international air travellers to quarantine no matter what country they are arriving from.

The Scottish Transport Secretary Michael Matheson said the measures announced by UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock were “not sufficient”.

As part of the new quarantine scheme, which begins on Monday, travellers arriving in the country from 33 “red list” countries will be forced to quarantine in hotels or other Government-provided accommodation once they arrive in the UK.

But all passengers flying into Scotland from overseas will be required to book and pay for “mandatory isolation in a quarantine hotel" even if they are not returning from a "red list" country.

Mr Matheson said the Scottish Government was clear that policy in this area “must be guided by expert clinical advice”.

He said it was “very hard to say with confidence where the high-risk countries are”, saying this was why the Scottish Government wanted a “comprehensive approach to managed isolation”.

Speaking about the measures announced by Mr Hancock, Mr Matheson said: “We know that is not sufficient and we have therefore gone further.”

Mr Matheson went on to tell MSPs at Holyrood that the four nations of the UK had agreed a joint approach to contracting the transport and accommodation services for managed isolation.

This, he said, would see a common approach adopted to procuring hotels, based on a UK Government contract, but he said this would have “flexibility” to cope with the “different policy directions we are taking”.

Six hotels, with a combined capacity of 1,300 rooms, near Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh airports have been identified for the required quarantining.

The cost to the first traveller in a room will be £1,750, with further supplements for additional family members.

These costs will include mandatory Covid-19 testing, which will see all people tested twice, on day two after their arrival and then again on day eight.

A special managed isolation welfare fund will be developed for those travellers who “may struggle to meet the charges”, Mr Matheson said.

Scottish Secretary for Transport, Infrastructure and Connectivity, Michael Matheson
PA

The new restrictions are likely to reduce the number of people flying into Scotland further, Michael Matheson added.

The Scottish Transport Secretary said in the last week of January there were approximately 1,600 people who arrived in Scotland from overseas, but that this fell to 730 in the first week of February.

Passengers arriving from England from red list countries who intend to travel up to Scotland will first have to complete their quarantine in England.

But Mr Matheson said Scottish ministers would continue to press Westminster to adopt a “more comprehensive approach and require all arrivals to go into quarantine hotels”.

With travel restrictions being tightened, he said the Scottish Government would be limiting overseas training for elite athletes to sportsmen and women and coaches preparing for the Olympics and Paralympics.

Mr Matheson insisted the “stronger approach” Scotland was taking to international quarantine was “necessary and proportionate”.

He pledged to work with airlines and airports to ensure travellers are taken “safely and securely” to quarantine hotels.

But the Scottish Transport Secretary stressed: “It is clear that to manage the risk of importation of new variants and to give vaccine deployment the best chance to bring us closer to normality here in Scotland, we have to place further limitations on international travel.

“For these to be as effective as possible, I will continue to encourage UK ministers to match our ambition and help protect Scotland and all of the UK.”

Additional reporting by PA Media.

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