Essential travel abroad: Can you legally leave the country during lockdown?
THE UK lockdown bans all non-essential travel abroad.
With holidays on hold for many during the Covid pandemic, can you still legally leave the country?
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Can I travel abroad on holiday during lockdown?
No - people living in the UK are banned from travelling abroad for holiday reasons.
The government states: “You cannot leave your home or the place where you are living for holidays or overnight stays unless you have a reasonable excuse for doing so.
“This means that holidays in the UK and abroad are not allowed.”
You can only travel internationally (or within the UK) where you first have a legally permitted reason to leave home.
People can only travel abroad for essential reasons including:
- Work that cannot be done from home
- Medical appointments
- Educational reasons
Also, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office "recognises some people may have essential family and/or business travel".
The website adds: "If you have a family emergency and need to urgently care for a loved one when no one else can, this could be considered essential travel."
Jobs that qualify for travel exemptions
Other jobs that may under the lockdown include:
- Aerospace engineers
- Aircraft pilots and crew
- BBC broadcasting transmission network and services
- Border security duties – UK (and non-UK) officials and contractors
- Bus and coach drivers
- Channel Tunnel system workers
- Civil aviation inspectors
- Clinical trials or studies
- Crown servants or government contractors
- Data infrastructure maintenance
- Defence personnel, visiting forces and government contractors
- Diplomatic missions, international organisations and conferences
- Downstream oil facility workers
- Drivers of goods vehicles
- Electronic communications networks
- Elite sportspersons – international & domestic
- Eurotunnel workers
- International prison escorts
- Medical evacuation and/or treatment
- Nuclear personnel
- Offshore oil and gas workers
- Postal workers involved in the transport of mail into and out of the UK
- Registered health or care professionals
- 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
- Regular work in the UK, living abroad
- Representatives of a foreign country or territory or British overseas territories
- Seasonal agricultural & poultry workers
- Water supplies and sewerage services workers
What are the latest rules on travelling abroad?
New restrictions have been introduced for anyone returning to the UK from abroad.
All arrivals must have three coronavirus tests - one before travel, one on day 2 of quarantine and one on day 8 of quarantine.
Each PCR test costs up to £120 and must be booked through the government portal which will be live from Thursday.
A Passenger Locator Form must also be filled in, and anyone caught filling in false information faces 10 years in prison.
While all arrivals must quarantine, anyone returning from one of 33 countries deemed "high-risk" must pay £1,750 to quarantine in a mandated-hotel for 10 days.
All other arrivals can quarantine for 10 days at their own home.
Many countries still ban flights to and from the UK following the Kent strain of coronavirus first reported in December 2020.
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Travellers from the countries on the red list could even face being segregated from other passengers on planes to prevent them from mixing, according to the Times.
Airlines could be forced to reserve parts of the cabin for passengers from others, as well as keep them apart from each other during the flight.
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With most flights operating at much lower capacity, this could be enforceable, but will require staff to maintain restrictions while en route to the UK.
Here is what it is like to self-isolate at a quarantine hotel.