Travel quarantine: Police fail to punish 1,800 people who they found weren't at home

Police failed to punish 1,800 people who likely breached travel quarantine - despite checking and finding they weren't at home.

Quarantine rules were today blasted as "full of holes" after official statistics appeared to show a major loophole in the law.

As of December 20, forces in england and Wales had issued 335 £1,000 fines to travellers for failing to self-isolate on arrival to the UK.

Yet in 1,837 cases they checked, found a person wasn't at home as promised - but issued no fine because they couldn't find them.

The National Police Chiefs Council said in 785 of these cases, officers found nobody with the relevant name lived at the address "so no further enforcement action could be taken".

In the other 1,052 cases, there was "no answer at all when officers attended an address, with no further enforcement action possible."

The cases were then referred back to the Border Force.

It was unclear tonight how many fines were later issued by Border Force in these cases.

Border Force have handed out 2,300 fines, but this includes people fined at the border itself, such as for failing to fill out a self-isolation form.

The figures raise questions over top Tory Priti Patel's pledge to crack down on people not complying with quarantine.

The Home Secretary said on Wednesday that there would be "an increase of about 1,000 targeted follow-up visits a day".

But the NPCC figures suggest only 11,000 or so follow-up checks were made in England and Wales in total up to December 20.

In 8,655 cases travellers were complying with self-isolation. In a further 511 they breached regulations but the situation was resolved before coming to a £1,000 fine.

Only three of the 335 fines were issued in Wales.

Yvette Cooper, chair of the Commons Home Affairs Committee, said the scheme was "full of holes" and "isn't good enough".

She added: "These figures show the huge weakness in the Government’s self-isolation scheme for travellers arriving home from abroad.

“The police were only asked to physically check on 11,000 people.

"And when nearly 1 in 5 of them appeared not to be in, despite the fact that they were supposed to be self-isolating, no further action was taken at all.

"This is ridiculous. It makes even clearer the weaknesses in the Government’s Covid border arrangements."

Travellers from countries without "corridors" to the UK had to isolate for 14 days, then 10, to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Ministers have since tightened up that quarantine requirement to cover arrivals from all countries.

travel is also banned completely for non-Brits from 33 'red list' countries with the risk of a new variant.

Brits who return from those 33 red list countries will need to isolate in guarded hotels - but there is no start date for the policy.

An NPCC spokeswoman said: “The police will only become involved in international travel quarantine regulations once they receive a referral from UK Border Force and support is requested, or following intelligence brought to police attention.

“We will seek to establish the circumstances, and we will continue our approach of engaging, explaining, encouraging and, where necessary, enforcing.

“Our expectation is that those who travel respect the rules and correctly complete their forms on arrival back to the UK. Where police are unable to get an answer following a visit to an address, we will refer cases back to the Border Force.”

Police disclosed the figures as they confirmed more than 42,000 fines had been handed out by police in England and Wales for breaches of COVID-19 laws.

A total of 42,675 fixed penalty notices (FPNs) were issued by forces in England and Wales between March 27 and January 17.

The NPPC said 80% of all coronavirus notices, including 38,452 in England and 4,223 in Wales, were given to those aged 18-39.

Some 250 £10,000 fines have been handed to organisers of mass gatherings of more than 30 people, including illegal raves, parties and protests, in England, with two in Wales.

A total of 2,564 tickets were issued in the seven days to January 14, compared with 2,225 the previous week, with the peak of 3,294 coming during the week of the Easter Bank Holiday in April.

NPCC chairman Martin Hewitt said: "We have seen a noticeable increase in enforcement in the last month."

He added: "We know most people are doing their best to follow the rules, however there is a stubborn minority who are not taking personal responsibility and continue to put people at risk."Follow the Official Rokna NEWS Telegram Channel For More and fresh NEWS.

Mirror