Passenger locator form ‘useless’ for tracking travellers from Greek islands

Exclusive: ‘It asked for my seat number on the plane but not the island or hotel I stayed in,’ said one holidaymaker in Greece

Danger zone: Santorini is now regarded as 'unacceptably high risk' by the Foreign Office (Simon Calder)

When restrictions imposed on travellers arriving from seven Greek islands begin at 4am on Wednesday, the government appears to have no way of identifying where returning holidaymakers have been.

On Monday the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, gave British holidaymakers 36 hours to get home from Crete, Lesvos, Mykonos, Santorini, Serifos, Tinos and Zakynthos because of local infection rates.

But the standard online form that every UK-bound traveller must complete does not distinguish between different parts of the same country.

The travel details required are the arrival point, airline name, booking reference, flight number and seat number. But the only question about location abroad is “What country are you travelling from?”

While the flight number could theoretically be used to deduce the final departure point, many travellers from the islands will be going via an airport such as Athens.

“JewelleryDiva” tweeted: “Has anyone else filled in the home office's passenger locator form?

“When I came back from Greece it asked for my seat number on the plane but not the island or hotel I stayed in?

“Has it been updated to capture this because if not you could put anything.”

Bridget Hone responded: “Nope. Did mine today. Country of departure but not island. Expecting an interesting flight from Crete.”

There has also been criticism of how the system is working. Jackie Simpkins tweeted: “Just filling in the completely useless personal locator form to come home from holiday & the bureaucracy so useless they have failed to attach the form to the email.”

A Department for Transport (DfT) spokesperson said:   "The form that passengers fill in now has a free text sub section after the country.

"Passengers are expected to fill this in before they return to the UK. Those arriving back to the UK after 4am on Wednesday 9 September will be expected to specify where they have been on the form.

“Anyone arriving after 4am on Wednesday from the Greek islands or another non-exempt country will need to self-isolate.”

The Greek tourist minister, Harry Theoharis, tweeted: "We feel that this is a very unfortunate decision and is not justified by the facts.

“Let me remind you that the 20 cases per 100,000 inhabitants is the limit imposed by the UK government itself and we are somewhere between 13 and 14, with a declining trend.”