Home Secretary Priti Patel pledged to publish the scientific advice underlying the government’s quarantine restrictions today as the 14-day self-isolation requirements for arrivals came into force.
Patel told MPs the Home Office had “worked across government to carefully develop this policy” and insisted: “The regulations are public health regulations. This is all about health.
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“We are guided by the science, working with the Department of Health and Sage advisors.”
Labour MP Ben Bradshaw described the quarantine as “irrational, jobs and holidays destroying” and challenged Patel to publish the advice she had received from the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) saying: “She says the policy is based on science. The chief scientific advisor says it’s not.”
Patel told MPs the advice came “from the Home Office’s own scientific advisor and, of course, that advice will be published”.
Home Office chief scientific adviser Professor John Aston is a member of Sage.
The Health Protection (Coronavirus International Travel) (England) Regulations came into force on Monday having been laid before Parliament last week as secondary legislation in the form of a Statutory Instrument.
The regulations automatically come into effect unless Parliament annuls them. The Commons last stopped a piece of secondary legislation laid in this way in 1979.
Patel insisted: “This is not my plan. It is a government plan and a government policy.
“I held a roundtable with the transport secretary last week which raised a number of issues not just about quarantine.
“Last week in my statement I covered potential air bridges, fast testing, immunity passports [and] how we can digitise the response at our border. This is a cross-government response that the Department for Transport and the Department of Health are currently working on.”
Aviation response
Industry leaders slammed the restrictions.
Ryanair chief Michael O’Leary dismissed the quarantine rules as “a political stunt designed by Dominic Cummings to cover the fact that they don’t even observe the quarantines themselves”.
He warned: “Thousands of Europeans who would normally visit the UK during July and August are not coming because they’re terrified of this quarantine.”
EasyJet chief executive Johan Lundgren said: “Unless there is a change, I fear the aviation industry as we know it in the UK will not be intact.”
British Airways parent IAG, easyJet and Ryanair began legal proceedings on Friday, sending ministers a pre-action protocol letter – the first stage in seeking a judicial review – describing the quarantine regulations as “disproportionate and unfair” and “defective”.
More: Quash Quarantine collective seeks legal action against restrictions
Comment: So many questions remain over quarantine measures
Analysis: How air corridors will end quarantine
