Managed isolation arrangements, more commonly known as ‘hotel quarantine,’ came into effect suddenly late night on Friday 16 April, ahead of the return of international flights to local airports. The Executive issued a late night statement confirming that the Managed isolation packages had gone live.

The first international flights into Northern Ireland will not be before today, 19 April 2021.

There are heavy penalties for not complying with these new rules which includes:

• Failure to complete the UK passenger locator form, even when travelling through ROI, incurs a fixed penalty notice of £500 with laddering for subsequent offences up to a maximum a fine of £4,000
• Failure to self-isolate incurs a fine of £1,000
• Not having a negative pre-departure test incurs a fine of £500 to £4,000
• Not booking a managed isolation package before arrival incurs a fine of £5,000 to £10,000
• Entering NI having been in a red flag country without entering through a designated port, or going directly to the accommodation over land border incurs a fine of £10,000
• Arriving without a testing package incurs a fine of £1,000 to £2,000

It is also an offence to provide false/deliberately misleading information on a passenger locator form with:

• fines of up to £10,000,
• imprisoned for up to 10 years or
• both, if you do not provide accurate details about the countries you have visited in the 10 days before you arrived in the UK.

Further information can be found here

The current list of countries classified as red can be accessed here

TRAVEL WITHIN THE COMMON TRAVEL AREA

Members should note that the advice on travel within the Common Travel Area (United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Isle of Man and Channel Islands) remains unchanged. It can be obtained here

In summary only essential travel is permitted (as defined).

As you will already know, that for travel into Northern Ireland from within the Common Travel Area, if the person plans to remain here for at least 24 hours, then public health advice is to self-isolate upon arrival for 10 days, unless an exemption applies.

A list of jobs that qualify for an exemption can be viewed here  This also provides guidance on the recommended contents of a letter for each specific sector to be provided by the business.