The Health Protection (Coronavirus) (International Travel, Public Health Information and Pre-Departure Testing) (Scotland) Amendment 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”),

• The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Public Health Information for Passengers Travelling to Scotland) Regulations 2020 (“the Passenger Information Regulations”) and

• The Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Pre-Departure Testing and Operator Liability) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 (“the Pre-Departure Testing Regulations”).

Regulation 2 amends the International Travel Regulations to—

a)

add the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania to the list of acute risk countries and territories in schedule A2 of the International Travel Regulations,

b)

reduce the amount of passenger information that people travelling to Scotland are required to provide on the Passenger Locator Form in order to comply with regulation 3 of the International Travel Regulations,

c)

amend the definition of aircraft crew in schedule 2,

d)

make a minor clarification to the requirement to provide a negative coronavirus test result as it applies to the responsible adult travelling with a child aged over 11 under regulation 5A, and

e)

make a minor amendment to regulation 7 in consequence of the deletion of paragraphs 39, 40 and 42 of schedule 2 by S.S.I. 2021/21.

Regulation 3 amends the Passenger Information Regulations so that the information operators are required to provide to passengers includes information about the requirement, under regulation 5A of the International Travel Regulations, to possess notification of a negative coronavirus test result. The Passenger Information Regulations are also amended so that the offences contained in those Regulations may be triable either summarily or on indictment, for consistency with similar provisions in the Pre-Departure Testing Regulations.

Regulation 4 amends Part 2 of the Pre-Departure Testing Regulations so operators are not required to ensure that a notification of a negative coronavirus test result is from a “qualifying test”, but are instead required only to check that passengers possess a notification of a coronavirus test which includes specified information.

An impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument.