PART 4Enforcement

Offences

Reasonable excuses: contravention of regulation 624

For the purposes of regulation 23(1)(b), reasonable excuses for contravening regulation 6 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 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 Northern Ireland 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 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 Northern Ireland meant that it was not reasonably practicable for them to meet the requirement in paragraph 1(c) of Schedule 5, and it was not reasonably practicable for them to obtain a qualifying test in their last point of departure F1;

F2h

a person undertook a qualifying test on board the cruise ship on which that person arrived in Northern Ireland, the result of that test was positive, and it was not reasonably practicable for that person to disembark in a country or territory other than Northern Ireland.