The government have just announced that you will need a legitimate reason for travel. i.e,
Work, Education, Medical.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55821702
My questions are:
1) Has anyone here tried traveling recently?
It might just be bullshit. They said I would be checked when I got back to the UK on Dec 18th from Germany. You must complete the form etc. There were no checks. Not one person was checking at Stanstead as I came through.
2)If you are checked how thorough is it?
Can you have a friend write you an official looking letter offering a job? Will an email suffice? Do they want to see a contract?
Probably no-one has gone yet because they just announced it. But if anyone flies please post here.
3)When will it end???
Logically it should end when the current lockdown ends. But logic is really out the window at this point.
It's all vague, both for leaving the UK and entering anywhere else. Some countries have a declaration/sworn statement form (e.g. France) and it doesn't say that you need evidence, but I would think some paperwork would be very handy when being quizzed by the border chaps. Most work reasons would probably not fly any more, unless it was something very important indeed, or humanitarian.
I'm surprised you weren't checked at the airport coming home, I flew into London twice last year and both times we were certainly checked for those forms and the QR codes.
Why not share your specific travel ambitions and locals might be able to be of more help. Where are you hoping to get to?
Most people i know (myself included) just got a letter/email saying it was for work or education.
Just ask where you're going to write something.
That said, i haven't and nobody i know has been asked to produce that proof.
I dont know of a single person coming in thats had the actual details on the PLF verified either.
Hi,
can anyone point me to a link for the actual law on this question? At the moment, all I can find is a Government page summarising the "advice" or "guidance", which is obviously not the same thing (although in yet another subverting of democracy, the Government has scandalously been relying on the public failure to distinguish between the two-hence the scotch egg fiasco).
What I am keen to find is precisely what the law says about the form you apparently need to complete when leaving the country verifying the "legal" reason for travel.
Many thanks!
Hi shotclog
Its a bit tortuous going through the orginal Statutory Instruments but it is the only source of what you can and cannot do. Government guidance is a hotch-potch of wishful thinking bordering on misinformation; it would be helpful if their FullFact stooges paid some of their attention to these. I ignore them - read the two relevant SIs
1 The Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel) (England) Regulations 2020 which was amended yet again at 04:00 today by the The Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel) (England) (Amendment) (No. 7) Regulations 2021.
Everything within this document is about the obligations on those entering England. Nothing about leaving.
The prohibition on leaving the UK, trotted out by nasty control freaks like Hancock and his guidance is merely implied in
2 The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (All Tiers) (England) Regulations 2020
SCHEDULE 3A, Tier 4 restrictions
PART 1 Restrictions on movement, Restrictions on leaving home
1.—(1) No person who lives in the Tier 4 area may leave or be outside of the place where they are living without reasonable excuse. (2) For the purposes of sub-paragraph (1)— (a) the circumstances in which a person has a reasonable excuse include where one of the exceptions set out in paragraph 2 applies;
Exceptions: leaving home
2.—(1) These are the exceptions referred to in paragraph 1.
(5) Exception 2 is that it is reasonably necessary for P to leave or be outside P’s home— (a) for the purposes of work or to provide voluntary or charitable services, where it is not reasonably possible for P to work, or to provide those services, from home;
So you may leave your home with the express permission of Exception 2 for the purposes of work or even providing services voluntarily . Nothing says you have to provide them within England so long as you can't do it from home; a bit difficult to mix cocktails needed in a bar in Miami. There is nothing requiring written proof but, it is easier to wave some convincing printed email to the unfortunate officer tasked with somehow policing this fascist rubbish than have to go through a civil suit to gain compensation from his chief constable.
....and there is a non-exhaustive list of attending funerals, death bed visits, that might be appropriate.
Now the problem is what the restrictions and procedures in the overseas jurisdction when you arrive. But go back to 1 to read about the hassle when you get back. That is if you really feel the need to. If you enjoy your legal 'escape' you might not want to just yet. But if you have escaped to somewhere more enlightened, would you really want to come back to the smoking financial ruin or dystopian fascist state, we may become ?
