New Updates on travel to England 8th January 2021

• all international arrivals to England, including UK nationals, required to present a negative COVID-19 test taken up to 72 hours prior to departure
• passengers will be subject to an immediate fine of £500 if they fail to comply with the new regulations on pre-departure testing
• all passengers arriving from countries not on the government’s travel corridor list will still be required to self-isolate for 10 days, regardless of test result
• passengers will still be required to fill in a passenger locator form and be subject to national lockdown restrictions

Passengers arriving from all international destinations will be required to present a negative COVID-19 test result before departing for England to help protect against new strains of coronavirus circulating internationally.

A negative pre-departure test reduces the risk of someone travelling whilst infectious, acting as another safeguard to prevent imported infections. Passengers arriving from countries not on the government’s travel corridor list

must self-isolate for 10 days regardless of their pre-departure test result to provide further robust protection from those travelling from high-risk countries.

Prior to departure passengers will need to present proof of a negative COVID-19 test result to carriers, as well as their passenger locator form.

The UK Border Force will conduct spot checks on arrival into England to ensure that passengers are fully compliant.

Passengers arriving into England who have successfully demonstrated a negative result prior to departure from a country not on the travel corridor list will still have the option to reduce the self-isolation period from 10 to as little as 5 days by paying for a test through the Test to Release scheme.

The scheme requires a test to be taken on or after the fifth full day since leaving a country not on the travel corridor list.