The Health Protection (Coronavirus) (International Travel) (Scotland) Regulations 2020

[F1 PART 2A S Pre-Departure Testing

Textual Amendments

F1 Pt. 2A inserted (15.1.2021 at 4.00 a.m.) by The Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Pre-Departure Testing and Operator Liability) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 (S.S.I. 2021/20), regs. 1(2), 3(3) (with reg. 4)

Requirement to possess notification of negative test result S

5A.— (1) A person who arrives in Scotland having begun their journey outside the common travel area must possess on arrival valid notification of a negative result from a qualifying test taken by that person.

(2) A person who is travelling with a child aged 11 or over and for whom they have responsibility must, on their arrival in Scotland, possess valid notification of a negative result from a qualifying test taken by that child.

(3) A person who possesses valid notification of a negative result from a qualifying test must produce that notification, physically or digitally, if requested to do so by a constable or an immigration officer.

(4) The following are not required to comply with this regulation—

(a) a person who is a child (without prejudice to paragraph (2)),

(b) a person described in paragraph 2, 3, 4, 4B, 4C, 4D, 4E, 7, 12, or 30 of schedule 2,

(c) a person described in paragraph 4(1) of schedule 2A.

(5) For the purposes of this regulation—

(a) a test is a qualifying test if it complies with paragraph 1 of schedule 2A,

(b) a notification of a negative result is valid if it includes the information specified in paragraph 2 of schedule 2A.

Pre-Departure testing: offences and penalties S

5B.— (1) A person who contravenes a requirement in regulation 5A commits an offence.

(2) It is a defence to a charge of committing an offence under paragraph (1) to show that the person, in the circumstances, had a reasonable excuse.

(3) For the purposes of paragraph (2), reasonable excuses include, in particular where—

(a) a person was medically unfit to provide a sample for a qualifying test and possessed a document, in English or accompanied by a certified English translation, signed by a medical practitioner entitled to practise in the country or territory in which that practitioner was based, to that effect,

(b) it was not reasonably practicable for a person to obtain a qualifying test due to a disability,

(c) a person required medical treatment with such urgency that obtaining a qualifying test was not reasonably practicable,

(d) a person contracted coronavirus and required emergency medical treatment,

(e) a person was accompanying, in order to provide support, whether medical or otherwise, a person described in sub-paragraph (c) or (d) where it was not reasonably practicable for the accompanying person to obtain a qualifying test,

(f) a person began their journey to Scotland in a country or territory in which a qualifying test was not available to the public, with or without payment, or in which it was not reasonably practicable for a person to obtain a qualifying test due to a lack of reasonable access to a qualifying test or testing facility and it was not reasonably practicable for them to obtain a qualifying test in their last point of departure if this was different to where they began their journey,

(g) the time it has taken a person to travel from the country or territory where they began their journey to the country or territory of their last point of departure prior to arriving in Scotland meant that it was not reasonably practicable for them to meet the requirement in paragraph 1(c) of Schedule 2A, and it was not reasonably practicable for them to obtain a qualifying test in their last point of departure.

(4) A person does not commit an offence where they contravene a requirement in regulation 5A if they reasonably believed at the time of the contravention that the notification of a negative result was valid and from a qualifying test.

(5) A person who commits an offence under this regulation is liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.]