Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many checks have been made by the police on people subject to a 14-day quarantine period after arriving in the UK.

New measures introduced on 8 June require all passengers arriving in the UK, who do not fall under a specified exemption, to self-isolate for 14 days to reduce cases of COVID-19 being brought in from abroad and to help prevent a devastating second wave of the disease.

An assurance service is contacting a random sample of non-exempted arrivals to check compliance. Where there is reason to suspect that an individual is not complying, details will be passed to the relevant police force who will consider enforcement action. Police will continue to take the 4 ‘E’s approach of engage, explain, encourage and, as a last resort, enforce. Guidance on enforcement activity is issued by the College of Policing. Interpretation of that guidance and any subsequent action is an operational decision for the police.

We have seen high levels of compliance with the rules to date, and expect that the majority of people will continue to do the right thing and abide by these measures.