Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps the Government is taking to monitor and ensure people travelling to and from Tier 4 covid-19 lockdown areas have legitimate travel exemptions when travelling (a) on public transport and (b) in their cars.

The Tier 4 rules, which were in place from 2 December to 4 January were clear that people must stay at home unless for an exempted purpose, such as education, work or accessing amenities that remain open. This means that people living within Tier 4 areas should not be travelling unless for those reasons.

The police have the powers to direct people to return home and to issue a fixed penalty notice, if they have left home without a valid exemption as set out in the regulations. The breach is leaving home, by any means including walking or cycling, rather than specifically travelling by either public transport or by car. Therefore, the Department does not hold data for breaches of these regulations where police have enforced the measures upon car drivers or those travelling on public transport.

The same applies to the national lockdown rules announced on 4 January 2020, which came into force on 6 January 2020.