Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reason seafarers who work for cruise ship operators have been required to isolate on arrival in the UK in the Managed Quarantine Service rather on board a non-operational ship with medical facilities.

The seafarer exemption was originally designed for seafarers involved in keeping critical freight moving in and out of the country, not for cruises. Noting increased risks associated with variants of concern, the exemption for seafarers was amended accordingly.

We currently have no plans to designate non-operational cruise ships as Managed Quarantine Facilities using powers set out in Schedule 11 of the Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel and Operator Liability) (England) Regulations 2021.

The Government is collecting data from cruise lines as part of the ongoing review of satisfactory evidence from domestic cruises which have restarted, to support progression to international cruise restart. We are unable to publish this information as it is commercially sensitive.