Red tape foul up for ‘amber list’ passengers

Exclusive: Travellers have to tick a box saying they must quarantine even when they don’t need to

Papers please: travellers to the UK must complete a passenger locator form and take multiple tests (Simon Calder)

Passengers taking advantage of the latest relaxation of international travel rules are finding the passenger locator form (PLF), which every arrival must complete, is incoherent.

Since Monday, British holidaymakers who have been vaccinated by the NHS, are able to return from most medium-risk “amber list” locations without quarantining.

But applying for a PLF for returning from Spain, the UK’s favourite overseas destination, requires the traveller to make nonsensical declarations.

One page of the application form states, correctly: “If you have only been in green list countries or islands in the 10 days before you travel, you do not need to self-isolate.”

Yet the official form then demands that travellers who are not on the exempt list because of the profession must tick a box declaring: “I need to self-isolate when I arrive in the UK.

“I have only been in green list countries or islands, or I was fully vaccinated in the UK.” This page does not mention the option for travellers returning from amber list nations.

The form also asks travellers to enter the date they left the country – even though people are told to complete the form before departure.

It follows assertions that passengers were told to make false declarations in order to claim quarantine exemption.

The Labour MP, Ben Bradshaw, said: “Yet more utter incompetence from a government hell bent on creating chaos for families and destroying our travel industry.

“You have to lie or the form doesn’t work.”

The government warns: “It is a criminal offence to provide false or deliberately misleading information when filling out your passenger locator form.

“You could be fined, imprisoned or both.”

A government spokesperson said: “We have now updated our form so it is clearer for those who do not need to quarantine and we continue to review and modify our approach to ensure full compliance with border and biosecurity checks.”