Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Here is the UK quarantine form that you need to fill in from tomorrow

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

From tomorrow, all arrivals into the UK must complete a 14-day quarantine.  We thought you might be interested to see the form that all that incoming travellers, including UK residents, must complete.

If you are travelling to the UK you must now complete the ‘public health passenger locator form’ in order to comply with the 14 day quarantine regulations. You may face a £100 fine or be refused entry if you do not.

The Government website makes it clear that you should complete the form before you travel but, oddly, no earlier than 48 hours before your travel.  Each adult must complete their own form.

The form and government guidance went live on Friday in order to allow passengers arriving from tomorrow to complete the required paperwork. You can see the form on this page of the GOV.UK site here.

You’ll need the following details to complete the public health passenger locator form:

  • passport
  • name of the airline, train or ferry company
  • tour company (if travelling with a tour group)
  • booking reference
  • arrival airport, station or port
  • arrival date
  • flight, train or bus number
  • quarantining address
  • emergency contact

Failure to isolate for the full 14 days could result in a £1000 fine.  If you are fined multiple times, the fines will increase each time to a maximum of £3200.

Only a small percentage of people will be checked, and the checks will be carried out by ringing your mobile phone – not in person – to ask where you are.  On this basis, it seems very unlikely that many fines will be issued.

uk quarantine form to complete

Everyone who is arriving from outside Ireland, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man must complete the form.  In theory there is no sneaky way to enter the country via Ireland and avoid completing the form and quarantining as was speculated in some quarters.  However, as entrants from Ireland do not pass through Border Control, it is unclear how this is enforced.

“You will also need to complete a public health passenger locator form if you are travelling from the Republic of Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man and have been outside the Common Travel Area in the last 14 days.”

The guidance suggests going straight the place where you will self-isolate, although it does allow people who have had a long journey to break it up by stopping in safe accommodation. In such circumstances you must also provide the intermediary address when completing the form.

A lot of people are exempted from the mandatory isolation period. Diplomats, defence personnel and variety of key workers for the rail, air, ferry and agricultural industry do not have to do so. You can see the list of exempted individuals here.

You will note that there is one exception for:

“Workers with specialist technical skills for essential or emergency works or services (including commissioning, maintenance, and repairs and safety checks) to ensure the continued production, supply, movement, manufacture, storage or preservation of goods”

….. which seems to have substantial scope.

There is also an exemption for people who live in one country and work in another, and commute between the two at least once a week.

Weirdly, according to 9(a) of the Statutory Instrument, you are permitted to leave the UK even if you have not completed the 14-day isolation period. At that point you are someone else’s problem!

9. During the period of their self-isolation, P may not leave or be outside of, the place where P is self-isolating except—

(a) to travel in order to leave England, provided that they do so directly

The Statutory Instrument is the legal framework which will be used to enforce the rules, whilst the government guidance on GOV.UK is simply the customer-friendly version. If you have some spare time to kill and enjoy the prospect of reading a legal document you can do so here.

Category

General

Comments (158)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Paul says:
    7 Jun7 June 08:14

    Anyone got any trips booked and planning on going? And if so how tightly will you follow lockdown?

    I have some trips in July (hopefully air bridges will solve this) and would be happy to quarantine except for the lack of exercise outside on my bike, so wondering whether to risk it.

    • Mr(s) Entitled says:
      7 Jun7 June 08:16

      Pretty sure you can ride your bike if you are testing your eyesight.

    • Anna says:
      7 Jun7 June 08:18

      Theoretically I would still travel as quarantine wouldn’t affect us but the combination of the travelling experience currently, social distancing requirements at the destination and uncertainty around the way the infection rate is going at both ends may well make it feel like just not worth the effort!

      • Andrew says:
        7 Jun7 June 08:31

        Totally agree. I have zero appetite to travel at the moment regardless of any restrictions in place. Save my money and my Avios and IHG points for better times when it’ll be more enjoyable. The premium experience certainly needs to be returned to as close to normal as possible before I will be booking anything – ham sandwich and a bottle of water in First isn’t appealing.

        • meta says:
          7 Jun7 June 08:37

          Yes, I am not interested in long-haul. I will be travelling to Europe this summer though. Everything is pretty much back to normal in terms of restaurants and cafés. I also enjoy when there are no crowds. Also with so many refunds, I need to burn points!

          • Tony says:
            7 Jun7 June 08:42

            Not sure where you get that idea.
            I live in Spain and although things are easing they are not ‘pretty much back to nirmal’ & at this time British people are barred from entering unless they have residencia.

          • meta says:
            7 Jun7 June 08:46

            @ Tony There is more to Europe other than Spain or Italy…

          • Tony says:
            7 Jun7 June 11:08

            @meta, of course and I have visited every European country but Brits are barred from at least seven of the major countries so I don’t think it is correct in saying things are getting back to normal as clearly they are not.

        • Alex M says:
          7 Jun7 June 13:32

          Travelling itself is a great experience. Travelling now would be a different experience- even better, so I could experience something new. So, yes – I have 2 trips booked for the summer, if the planes are still flying.

    • Harry T says:
      7 Jun7 June 12:27

      I’ve got several trips planned in August. Speculatively thinking of Amsterdam for a weekend in July because I think this quarantine will be gone. The Netherlands is letting in UK travellers at the moment, anyway.

      The political backlash from many Conservatives, and the desire not to be seen as the sick man of Europe in the context of Brexit, will nicely kibosh this before the end of the month. All this government cares about is populism, and holidays are awfully popular.

  • Scott says:
    7 Jun7 June 08:22

    What a complete waste of time. This virus doesn’t respect the reason for travel – if it’s not quarantine for everyone at the point of entry then it’s not a quarantine at all! The whole point is that this is a highly infectious virus that very easily spreads from one person to another – and this “quarantine” permits people to enter the UK at one end and then travel to the other end before starting isolation, or for many travellers, to not be in isolation at all! Are any of these jobs on the exemption list genuinely so important that they merit people dying from the virus to avoid a 14 day hiatus in their social activities?!

    • Anna says:
      7 Jun7 June 08:28

      This is where it falls down – the government knows that it can’t spare essential workers like NHS staff and police for an extra 14 days after travel but they also know they can’t force people to cancel their holidays without a slew of small claims ensuing. In reality though, so many holidays are being cancelled at the moment, the number of people travelling (and therefore going into quarantine, or not) is going to be very small.

    • The Savage Squirrel says:
      7 Jun7 June 09:07

      To be fair if it’s 14 days for ALL then the haulage industry can’t operate … and that means, amongst other things, both the food and medical/PPE supply chains collapsing. So you can reduce travel (and the publicity around these measures will have a significant effect, which, let’s be honest, is the intention rather than active enforcement and elimination of travel), but let’s get over the idea that you can isolate the country from anyone coming in from abroad.

  • Paul says:
    7 Jun7 June 08:30

    A nasty policy, 12 weeks too late! I agree with BA on this; disproportionate and irrational.

    Pretty much sums up our odious Home Secretary who is (imho) both irrational and stupid. Her extremist views have always been irrational and would be more in keeping with those of a jumped Right Wing junta in some isolated banana republic…… oh wait😳

  • Yawn says:
    7 Jun7 June 08:31

    The fines are for England only, and last time I checked, the devolved administrations haven’t put any fines of their own place. So there is no penalty for breaking quarantine in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland.

    • Erico1875 says:
      7 Jun7 June 08:51

      Boris and his pals couldnt get a chimps tea party right.. What a mess

    • Jessiefan says:
      7 Jun7 June 09:18

      Indeed, but you’d need to fly into EDI or GLA. This is a good boost for those airports!!

  • Name says:
    7 Jun7 June 09:00

    OT: whats the best way to use up 34,000 avios. I dont think I want to fly BA in the next 12 months?
    Best transfer method?

  • Peter says:
    7 Jun7 June 09:02

    I’m flying to Germany this afternoon to visit family for a week. Flights to Hamburg only started on the 1st of June, and out of Ryanair, easyJet, BA and Eurowings only Eurowings is flying, and even that only 4 times a week.
    The flight is completely full!
    I’m working from home anyway, so don’t care about the quarantine.
    However, I work as a software engineer for a major UK retailer – sounds like I’m covered by this?!
    “Workers with specialist technical skills for essential or emergency works or services (including commissioning, maintenance, and repairs and safety checks) to ensure the continued production, supply, movement, manufacture, storage or preservation of goods”

    • GeorgeJ says:
      7 Jun7 June 09:38

      Dont bet on that exception it is qualified by:
      “You should show a letter from your company which includes:
      your personal details, such as name and address
      contact details for your employer
      contact details for the business or organisation you’ll be completing work for in the UK
      what work you’ll be doing
      If your employer issued you with photo identification, you should bring this with you to the UK
      You’ll need to show that your travel to the UK is essential for your work here, for example a letter from your employer, a consignment note or your operator’s licence.”
      There is an assumption there that you are a foreign resident coming to the UK to do essential work, not a tourist returning (and hence there is no exemption for you) to your UK place of work. Even if your employer goes along with this deception and you manage to get them to issue a letter it will quickly be evident that you have made a non essential journey to Germany and have ignored FCO advice not to travel.
      I would get ready to part with some dosh if you go out.

      • Charlieface says:
        7 Jun7 June 13:38

        Where does it say that assumption? Also, if you don’t fill the form in and they don’t ask you for it: a) how do they know your contact details? b) are you doing anything wrong anyway?

      • yorkieflyer says:
        7 Jun7 June 21:55

        and how would you know tou needed any of this until you logged on 48 hours before returning?

    • Pat the Postie says:
      7 Jun7 June 13:35

      No, I would think it is only if you travelled for work not to visit family.

  • Graeme says:
    7 Jun7 June 09:18

    It’s ineffective. Self isolation isn’t meaningful quarantine. Colleagues have flown into Australia and Thailand recently – bussed directly to a hotel and confined to room for 14 days, with food provided and health checks and covid test. That’s a quarantine.

    • Callum says:
      7 Jun7 June 10:37

      It absolutely can be. Contrary to popular belief, the general public aren’t all criminals desperate to break the law in any way they can! They conducted thousands of spot checks in Australia (hotel quarantine is a new thing) and the vast majority were found to be complying.

      That being said, the possibility of an in-person spot check must have been somewhat of a deterrent. I don’t see why they’d even bother doing checks by calling a mobile phone.

      • Chris Heyes says:
        7 Jun7 June 12:08

        Callum@ Your absolutely correct, but you must have realized by now most people on here Just “Talk” “Talk” & more “Talk” most aren’t even going to consider whatever their “Talking” about
        Just have a laugh about it not even 1% will break whatever regulations come in regarding Quarantine which finishes 27th June lol

      • Anna says:
        7 Jun7 June 13:00

        I doubt very much that breaching quarantine falls within the remit of RIPA authorisations, which regulate cell siting requests. Also, this can only tell you where the phone was, not whether you were actually there at the time also. If the government did start monitoring people via their phones here I would expect some serious legal challenges.

      • ChrisC says:
        7 Jun7 June 13:27

        Just leave the phone at home when you fo and empty the bins, nip to the shops or go to BarnardCastle for an eye test.

    • CV3V says:
      7 Jun7 June 13:47

      As Graeme points out, they were bussed to a hotel, they don’t get on the Piccadilly line/train/public bus to go to their quarantine location and they weren’t allowed to leave the hotel to pop down to the local supermarket for their groceries, which the UK scheme will allow. As we all now know, you can spread the virus whilst asymptomatic.

      • Chris Heyes says:
        7 Jun7 June 21:16

        LL@ And their Advisers Advisers (can we agree on losing 50% of HR Slots) lol

    • Alex Sm says:
      8 Jun8 June 17:40

      UK did it a few times last winter when they put people returning from China into a care home in the Wirral (sick the name!!) but then it seemed too burdensome and they stopped

  • Chris says:
    7 Jun7 June 09:21

    Can’t seem to find any other options than English language forms via the link. What if you can’t even understand English?

    • Nick_C says:
      7 Jun7 June 10:33

      English is our official language Chris. What do you expect the form to be in? Korean?

      • Callum says:
        7 Jun7 June 10:42

        Every developed (and most less developed) country provides important forms in languages other than their official ones. It’s more important to get accurate information than to be weirdly precious about what language people should be able to understand.

        Assuming you’re not a racist/xenophobe, I can’t believe that bad to be described to you!

        • Nick_C says:
          7 Jun7 June 11:29

          Could you show me where I can apply for an ESTA in German?

          Or an Australian ETA in Spanish?

          As for your last sentence / paragraph, I genuinely could not understand it. But perhaps English is not your first language.

          • Chris says:
            7 Jun7 June 11:34

            No English is not my first language.

          • Sandgrounder says:
            7 Jun7 June 14:51

            Nick_C just click the language tab on the ESTA website- it is available in the official languages of almost all of the eligible countries. Not sure about the ETA- you can get most of the info from the embassy websites but you might need to use a third party site to apply in Spanish, unless the website detects the language from your browser.

          • Callum says:
            8 Jun8 June 01:51

            No Spanish speaking countries are required to get an ETA. It is available in Japanese however. The ESTA form is available in 24 languages from the look of it. You could have checked this yourself…

            I’d also argue it’s a false analogy. There’s a strong incentive for people who can’t understand those forms to seek help – if it’s wrong they might not be allowed in the country (or even on the plane). If the information on these forms is wrong they’ll still be fine, but we’ll all be at higher risk if we can’t contact them…

      • TGLoyalty says:
        7 Jun7 June 10:44

        @Nick_C for Korean traveller yes I would.

      • Anna says:
        7 Jun7 June 11:03

        Even if you think everyone should be able to understand English (our tourism industry would be in an even worse state if we made that requirement), the government has reached new levels of ineptitude here, effectively giving anyone a get out of jail card if they can claim they can’t understand or read English (take it from me, this would be enough to establish sufficient reasonable doubt to get a case thrown out of court).

        • Nick_C says:
          7 Jun7 June 11:34

          I don’t take it from you Anna that people who don’t speak English are exempt from UK law while in our country, but would be interested in any links you can provide that would prove me wrong.

          • Anna says:
            7 Jun7 June 13:11

            Not exempt from the law, but certainly would have a defence if they were prosecuted for not complying with a form they couldn’t read (whether because they didn’t understand English or because they were illiterate, or blind). This is why suspects who are being interviewed by the police, or appearing in court, have the right to an interpreter if they need one, and to have all relevant documentation translated into their native language. It would be a serious breach of human rights (the right to a fair trial) to subject someone to the judicial process in a language they didn’t understand.
            Unfortunately, there are also people who will seize on an aspect of the system meant to ensure fairness and use it dishonestly. If someone decided to claim they couldn’t read, it would be very difficult to prove otherwise unless there was a witness who could testify that they actually could (which could be impossible, especially in the case of a foreign national with few contacts here). But believe me, I’ve seen and heard it all!

      • Chris says:
        7 Jun7 June 11:18

        Just shows the arrogance of this hideous government. And to let you know Welsh is also an official language of the U.K. I suppose you’re fluent in every language of every country you’ve visited in the past?

        • Genghis says:
          7 Jun7 June 12:11

          Thought Welsh was only an official language in Wales?

          • Anna says:
            7 Jun7 June 13:13

            Yes, but see my comment above, a Welsh person would be entitled to have documentation in Welsh if they felt they didn’t speak/understand English well enough.

        • Anna says:
          7 Jun7 June 13:20

          This also happened right at the beginning when they only issued the COVID guidelines and health information to local authorities in English. There are significant Urdu and Gujarati-speaking communities were I live where some people would have struggled to know what they should do if they didn’t have someone to translate. It’s irrelevant that they couldn’t read English at that point as it was a national health crisis which needed to be communicated to everyone in the country.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Latest Forum Posts

Get 40,000 bonus points (worth 40,000 Avios) and £300 dining credit with The Platinum Card

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get £10 when you spend £150 on your free Currensea card

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? EARN POINTS WORTH 10,500 AVIOS WITH CAPITAL ON TAP

Get 20,000 bonus points, four airport lounge passes and your first year free with American Express Gold

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!