The Health Protection (Coronavirus) (International Travel) (Scotland) Amendment (No. 8) Regulations 2021

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (International Travel) (Scotland) Regulations 2020 (“the International Travel Regulations”).

Regulation 3 amends regulation 2(2) (interpretation) of the International Travel Regulations to provide that for the purposes of those Regulations a person with responsibility for a child can include a legal person such as a local authority.

Regulation 4 amends regulation 3 (requirement to provide information) of the International Travel Regulations by making consequential amendments to the requirements in relation to children travelling to boarding schools in Scotland and children travelling unaccompanied, to ensure that the person responsible for the child provides the Passenger Locator Form where that child is travelling alone or the form has not been completed.

Regulation 5 inserts a new paragraph (2A) and (2B) into regulation 4 (requirement to update passenger information) of the International Travel Regulations to provide that where the information provided in the Passenger Locator Form relating to an unaccompanied child or a child travelling to boarding school is no longer accurate, any person who has responsibility for the child must update that information. Regulation 6 amends regulation 5(1) to make it an offence not to do so.

Regulation 7 amends regulation 5D(3) (testing following arrival in Scotland: requirement to book and pay for tests) of the International Travel Regulations to ensure that the person with responsibility for a child can be a legal person such as a local authority.

Regulation 8 inserts regulation 5G(2A) (testing following arrival in Scotland: requirement to self-isolate on failure to undertake a test) of the International Travel Regulations to ensure that in the circumstances set out in regulation 5G(1), where the person is a child any person who is sharing specified premises with the child must continue to remain there until the end of the relevant period applying to the child.

Regulation 9 deals with amendments to regulation 6(1) (requirement for travellers to stay in specified premises) of the International Travel Regulations as follows—

(a) a new regulation 6(1)(e) is inserted to provide that children who are unaccompanied on arrival in Scotland from outside the common travel area, or from elsewhere within the common travel area where they have departed from or transited through a non-exempt country within the last 10 days, are required to self-isolate at specified premises (rather than under a managed self-isolation package),

(b) a new regulation 6(1)(f) is inserted to provide that children who arrive in Scotland from outside the common travel area, or from elsewhere within the common travel area where they have departed from or transited through a non-exempt country within the last 10 days, for the purpose of receiving education at a boarding school, are required to self-isolate at specified premises. A new regulation 6(5A) provides that paragraph (3)(a)(i) of regulation 6 applies with the modification that the address of the specified premises must be the boarding school,

(c) a new regulation 6(3)(d) is inserted to make provision that where unaccompanied children who do not have a home in Scotland arrive in Scotland, the premises at which they will self-isolate can be accommodation arranged by a local authority,

(d) a new regulation 6(7A) is inserted to provide that where a child is required to self-isolate at home for the applicable period set out in regulation 6(2) all members of the household must also self-isolate at home for the same period.

Regulation 10 amends regulation 8(5) (enforcement of requirement in regulation 6 and 6B) to ensure that the person with responsibility for a child can be a legal person such as a local authority.

Regulation 11 amends schedule 2 (persons not required to comply with regulation 3, regulation 5A or regulations 5D to 6B) of the International Travel Regulations to insert a new paragraph 4DA to make an exception to the exemption provided for seamen and masters, shipping pilots and inspectors and surveyors of ships. These persons may be exempted from certain requirements of the regulations where they have been repatriated or return to the United Kingdom in the course of their work.