Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government which civil servants are exempt from COVID-19 rules related to (1) travelling, and (2) mixing with groups of other people; and for what reasons they are exempt.

Crown servants and Government contractors, which includes civil servants must quarantine in a managed facility or in their own accommodation, depending on the ‘traffic light’ allocation of the country they departed from or transited through in the 10 days before arrival in the United Kingdom. This applies unless a relevant Government department has certified that they are not required to do so and the traveller is:

- a Crown servant or Government contractor travelling to the UK for essential Government work or returning from such work outside the UK; or

- returning from conducting essential state business outside of the UK; or

- returning to the UK where this is necessary to facilitate the functioning of a diplomatic mission or consular post of Her Majesty or of a military/other official posting on behalf of Her Majesty.

Civil servants meeting the first two of these eligibility criteria may also be exempt from the mandatory post-arrival testing requirements. Some civil servants who are conducting essential border work or essential defence activities are also exempt from the requirement to complete a Passenger Locator Form, as well as quarantine and travel testing requirements. While all social distancing restrictions are no longer mandated, the legal duty to self-isolate when notified by NHS Test and Trace remains in place applies to civil servants as to the wider public.