Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Tier 4 travel: Full legal wording now published, in force from 7am Sunday

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

The Government has published the Statutory Instrument which pushed the Tier 4 regulations into UK law at 7am on Sunday.

The full legal text is here. As usual, you should ignore anything said by any Government representative yesterday and focus purely on what is written.

Tier 4 travel: Full legal wording now published

It is as I expected, because it is the same structure as used in November. There is no ban on travel per se for anyone living in Tier 4. There IS a ban on leaving your house, however, and so travelling the airport would be in breach of this unless it meets one of the exceptions.

As usual, you are allowed to travel abroad if you are planning to visit an estate agent or show home or view a residential property for sale or rent.

Unless you are planning to look at houses whilst away, you should have left your home in Tier 4 before 7am this morning.

Hotels in Tier 4 areas are allowed to remain open if they wish. Guests must be travelling for work or for one of the other reasons stated, such as moving house or to attend a medical appointment.

The regulations do not discuss travelling to/from Tier 4 areas to fly from Heathrow, Luton or London City (which are in Tier 4) but this is presumably covered in the earlier legislation to which this is an amendment. Gatwick is not in Tier 4.

Category

General

Comments (223)

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

  • HereNotHere says:
    20 Dec20 December 12:09

    It is still unclear to me if EU nationals can fly to return home… I guess it is one of the allowed exceptions but I didn’t find it written anywhere… Am I blind or there isn’t a clear list of the exceptions anywhere?

    • Rob says:
      20 Dec20 December 12:28

      You can travel home if returning from a trip. Otherwise not.

      • abc says:
        20 Dec20 December 13:13

        Or if you are moving back home, or if you travel for work, or if you are in a support bubble where there other household is abroad, or … Plenty of exceptions.

    • Matt says:
      20 Dec20 December 13:16

      Looks like Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and Austria have banned air travel to and from the UK over fears about new coronavirus strain. Germany considering the same. I’m sure other countries will follow suit

  • James Vickers says:
    20 Dec20 December 12:42

    The way people on here are trying to find ways of dodging rules is a bit of an insight in to why we’re in this mess..

  • Aeronaut says:
    20 Dec20 December 13:18

    “As usual, you should ignore anything said by any Government representative yesterday and focus purely on what is written.”

    Or alternatively think about the underlying reason why these statutes restricting movement are being enacted, and act accordingly in a responsible and selfless manner.

    Legal loopholes are totally irrelevant to a contagious virus.

    Editorial tone however is something that matters.

    • KBuffett says:
      20 Dec20 December 13:24

      ‘Editorial tone however is something that matters.’

      I agree here. Even Britain’s most read
      newspaper doesn’t say this type of thing.

    • Nick Burch says:
      20 Dec20 December 15:16

      The Government is currently making rules on this stuff via Statutory Instruments, under emergency powers, without any of that bothersome parliamentary debate or votes first. They can make the law say pretty much whatever they want it to say! If they chose not to ban something, or chose to retain certain broad exemptions from last time (it’s largely the same list as November), that was their choice and probably done for a reason.

      Unlike some, Rob isn’t advocating people to ignore the restrictions or break the law, just to read and follow what the government picked as the restrictions they magic’d into statue with the flick of a ministerial pen.

      If you think the rules aren’t right, lobby your MP for a proper debate and a chance for MPs to change+vote on the rules to say what you feel they should say!

      • Jake says:
        20 Dec20 December 15:49

        When someone basically asks is there a loophole I can use so I can still to go to St Lucia, and Rob provides one, that’s gone far beyond advocating people to read and follow what the government picked as the restrictions. It’s one thing to advise people to read and follow them in good faith, it’s another entirely to advise others how to deliberately abuse them to get what they want.

        • Anna says:
          20 Dec20 December 18:15

          Notwithstanding there will be some human rights lawyer along to challenge it as soon as anyone tries to enforce it …

    • marcw says:
      20 Dec20 December 15:21

      All media (including blogs or HfP) have an editorial agenda.

    • will says:
      20 Dec20 December 17:11

      I think the main point here is, no matter what you here the government say, you need to be aware of the actual law if you want to stay on the right side of it.
      It’s not simply trying to find loopholes, the government ministers have said things that you could possibly do which were possibly a breach of law. For example a scotch egg and an undisclosed amount of booze to accompany it.

      All we need now is for it to emerge that this or another mutation is resistant to the existing vaccines.

      What we should tried, and what we may still need to attempt is to eradicate it, at least until a vaccine effective against known strains is administered.

      The danger of either a vaccine resistant mutation or more deadly mutation should not be underestimated.

  • Tarmohamed says:
    20 Dec20 December 14:31

    I’ve read the guidance, just wanted to confirm if i have interpreted correctly. We can leave home to attend a wedding taking place abroad?

  • Gabriela says:
    20 Dec20 December 14:33

    Does anybody know if someone can fly from Scotland to London Luton? Or is this a no no?

  • Lazza says:
    20 Dec20 December 14:56

    I don’t understand why people shouldn’t travel if they’ve got a negative PCR test. I’m supposed to be travelling to South Africa for three months on Wednesday and am having a test tomorrow morning. I will then isolate until I fly so won’t be “a carrier for this virus”. Unless SA decide to ban UK travellers I really don’t see why I should be stopped from leaving the country by our government.

  • Tony says:
    20 Dec20 December 16:12

    Mind you due to Brexit, it will (may) be impossible to travel to Europe from 1st Jan

    • Will says:
      20 Dec20 December 17:12

      Why?

      • marcw says:
        20 Dec20 December 18:15

        Same reason why US residents aren’t allowed to enter Shengen.

        • The real John says:
          20 Dec20 December 18:33

          Plenty of US residents are allowed to, and have been, entering Schengen. Some of them are even US citizens.

      • Rob says:
        20 Dec20 December 18:40

        Because the EU has banned all incoming travel from non-EU countries, which we become on 1st January. Individual states can choose to override this, however.

  • AJA says:
    20 Dec20 December 16:22

    I can’t believe people are still actively thinking of ways to circumvent the rules. Even if the law does not spell out a particular situation that is not a reason to exploit the rules. It is clear that if you live in Tier 4 you should be staying at home unless you really need to leave it. You should only be travelling if it is for a legitimate reason eg on business. Note a holiday is not a legitimate reason. You should not travel into Tier 4 unless you have a legitimate reason to do so. Countries are beginning to shut their borders to us so it may become difficult to travel anyway which may cause issues for those who left the country before this announcement. Stay safe everyone. Hands Face Space.

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.

NEW: Sign-up bonuses boosted to 3,000 and 18,000 points

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? SPECIAL OFFER TO 12TH MAY EARN POINTS WORTH 30,000 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!