'Confusing' quarantine rules could change again within days as Portugal teeters on brink
Video report by ITV News Correspondent James Mates
The transport secretary has told ITV News already "confusing" quarantine advice for the separate UK nations may change again in the coming days.But Grant Shapps insisted the rules that have left many holidaymakers muddled are clear enough to be understood.
Travellers across the UK have been calling for clarity after Wales and Scotland imposed quarantines on returnees from Portugal, but England and Northern Ireland did not.
Rupert Evelyn discusses the different rules on quarantine across the UK
"It is, I'm afraid, a bit confusing though I suspect people will know which country they live in and be able to follow local rules," Shapps told ITV News.
Boris Johnson has insisted "overwhelmingly the UK is proceeding as one" but admitted different UK nations have "different rates of infectivity, different approaches to the problem".
During a visit to Solihull, the prime minister said: "I think you will find if you dig below the surface, of some of the surface differentiations, you will find overwhelmingly the UK takes the same approach."
Asked whether quarantines will be imposed on returns from Portugal in the coming days, Mr Shapps said: "I can't give that guarantee I'm afraid. It is the case and always has been we keep a daily check on these."We try to make it so the changes are announced on a Thursday evening to give people some indication but it's not a hard and fast rule and if we see changes then I'm afraid we will sometimes have to act out of cycle."
Shapps defended the way different UK nations can impose their own rules, saying he's "in charge of what happens in England from the point of view of quarantining, in fact we've not made any changes this week looking at the data."
Welsh health minister Vaughan Gething said Wales was acting "in line with" the risk assessments from the Joint Biosecurity Centre in imposing a 14-day quarantine on arrivals from those areas.
Downing Street did not deny that the JBC had advised that travel from Portugal and the six Greek islands restricted by Wales presents a risk of spreading coronavirus.
A No 10 spokesman repeatedly declined to comment on what the JBC advice was but when pressed whether he disputes Mr Gething's assessment, the spokesman said: "No.
"Ministers assess the data which is provided by JBC and the JBC risk assessments are assessed by ministers."
Passengers returning to Cardiff airport say they're 'not very happy':
Mr Shapps said quarantine powers laid with the devolved administrations and added that Westminster decided not to impose the measure on the popular holiday destinations because figures suggested cases were falling.
He added: "But different parts of the United Kingdom do have their own rules and regulations and therefore come to their own decisions just as they have through the knockdown, where you'd often find different rules about the number of families who could mix and the rest of it."
There have been suggestions that coronavirus tests upon arrival at airports could reduce the need for quarantines, but the PM said the idea would be ineffective.
He said he understands "the difficulties" the airline industry is going through but said testing at points of entry only identifies 7% of the cases. "
So 93% of the time you could have a real false sense of security, a false sense of confidence when you arrive and take a test," he said.
"That's why the quarantine system that we have has got to be an important part of our repertoire, of our toolbox, in fighting Covid.
"What we don't want to see is reinfection coming in from abroad and quarantine is a vital part of that."
Ministers have repeatedly said quarantine rules can be imposed "rapidly" in order to stop coronavirus being brought to the UK but without any guidance on how decisions are made, holidaymakers are left to play a "travel roulette" if they want to go abroad.
There had been speculation that Westminster would reimpose the quarantine requirement on Portugal due to a spike in Covid-19 cases, leading many holidaymakers to pay hundreds of pounds to fly home this week.
The Government was also under pressure to reimpose quarantine rules on arrivals from Greece after Scotland and Wales introduced restrictions in recent days.
Hinting there had been disagreement about the decisions made by Wales and Scotland, Mr Shapps earlier told BBC Radio 4's Today programme Scotland "sort of jumped the gun" by introducing restrictions for people arriving from any part of Greece.
"I'm very keen and do try to coordinate... with the other administrations so we can both announce at the same time, and ideally both announce the same things, and this week that didn't work out," he said.
But Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced on Thursday evening that there were no changes to the Government’s list, though he said he would not “hesitate to remove countries if needed”.
The Welsh Government then revealed that it would remove the exemption from the 14-day self-isolation requirement for travellers returning from Portugal, Gibraltar and seven Greek islands.
The new rule came into force at 4am on Friday.
The Scottish Government has said passengers arriving from Portugal would have to quarantine from 4am on Saturday, as well as those arriving from French Polynesia.
Scotland began requiring travellers from anywhere in Greece to enter quarantine from Thursday.
There were 23 Covid-19 cases per 100,000 people in Portugal in the seven days to Wednesday, up from 15.3 a week earlier.
A seven-day rate of 20 is the threshold above which the UK Government has considered triggering quarantine conditions.
Mr Shapps said a number of other factors are taken into account in relation to the list, including the level of change in cases, extent of testing, and whether outbreaks are “contained”.
Industry leaders and holidaymakers criticised the Government, saying travellers are “totally confused” by the different approaches taken in Westminster and the devolved administrations.
Kelly Jones and her family changed their flights home from the Algarve from Saturday to Friday at a cost of £900 to avoid a potential quarantine because she did not want her children to miss out on two weeks of school.
The 45-year-old from Birmingham said the situation was “absolutely disgusting”, telling the PA news agency: “The Government just change the goalposts left, right and centre at the moment. It’s embarrassing.”
Paul Charles, chief executive of travel consultancy The PC Agency, said: “The quarantine policy is in tatters and dividing the United Kingdom.
“Consumers are totally confused by the different approaches and it’s impossible to understand the Government’s own criteria anymore on when to add or remove a country.”
Rory Boland, editor of Which? Travel, said: “Days of speculation around this announcement meant many people rushed to pay extortionate prices for flights back to England to avoid having to quarantine on their return – only to now find out there was no need.
“The Government knows this and yet it continues to offer no clarity around how these decisions are made, all while ignoring the growing evidence suggesting this system is not working.
“If the Government is serious about letting international travel resume while prioritising public health, a major reassessment of its approach is needed.”
It came as figures showed the number of close contacts of people who tested positive for Covid-19 being reached through Test and Trace was at its lowest since the system was launched.
The latest data also indicated that a total of 6,732 new people tested positive for Covid-19 in England in the week to August 26, an increase of 6% in positive cases on the previous week and the highest weekly number since the week to June 3.
Thursday also saw the highest daily total of cases since June 4, with 1,735 positive results in the 24 hours up to 9am.
Meanwhile, the head of England’s testing programme, Baroness Dido Harding, said a “significant” rise in demand for coronavirus testing was behind people being directed to test centres more than 100 miles away.
Some people with Covid-19 symptoms who have tried to book tests online have been directed to centres which would take them more than three hours to reach by car.
Baroness Harding, interim chairwoman of the new National Institute for Health Protection, which incorporates NHS Test and Trace, blamed the problem on rising demand.
She told BBC Radio 4’s PM programme: “Now obviously I don’t want people to be being directed to go miles and miles for a test but the reason that that is happening at the moment is because of a really significant increase in demand off a testing platform that, as I’ve said, is larger than any other in Europe.”