The Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel and Operator Liability) (Wales) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No. 4) Regulations 2021

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel) (Wales) Regulations 2020 (S.I. 2020/574 (W. 132)) (the “International Travel Regulations”) and the Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel, Pre- Departure Testing and Operator Liability) (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2021 (S.I. 2021/48 (W. 11)) (the “Operator Liability Regulations”).

The International Travel Regulations impose requirements on persons entering Wales after having been abroad. They include a requirement for persons arriving in Wales to isolate for a period determined in accordance with those Regulations. The requirements imposed by the International Travel Regulations are subject to exceptions, and certain categories of person are exempt from having to comply. Persons entering Wales after being in one or more of the countries and territories listed in Schedule 3 to the International Travel Regulations are not required to isolate. The countries and territories listed in Schedule 3 are referred to as “exempt countries and territories”.

Regulation 3 amends regulation 2A of the International Travel Regulations so that the exemptions in regulation 2A now extend to persons travelling from Metropolitan France.

Regulation 4 amends Schedule 3 to the International Travel Regulations to add Austria, Germany, Latvia, Norway, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia to the list of exempt countries and territories outside the common travel area.

Regulation 5 amends Schedule 3A to the International Travel Regulations, which contains the list of countries and territories subject to additional measures. Non-exempt persons are prohibited from entering Wales where they have been in a country or territory listed in Schedule 3A within the last 10 days of arrival, pursuant to regulation 12E of the International Travel Regulations. Regulation 5 adds Georgia, Mayotte, Mexico and Réunion to the list in Schedule 3A and removes Bahrain, India, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Regulation 6 of these Regulations amends Schedule 1E to the International Travel Regulations to add the Curtis Cup to the list of ‘specified events’. This removes relevant persons at the event from the testing provisions in regulation 6AB of the International Travel Regulations and instead requires them to adhere to the requirements in regulation 6L of those Regulations.

Regulation 7 amends paragraphs 1 and 2 of Schedule 1C to the International Travel Regulations to bring the technical requirements for day 8 tests into line with the more stringent requirements for day 2 tests.

The Operator Liability Regulations impose requirements on persons operating international passenger services (“operators”) arriving into Wales from outside the common travel area. In accordance with those requirements operators must, for example, ensure that passengers travelling on such services possess notification of a negative test result and have made arrangements to take further tests following their arrival.

Regulation 8 makes a consequential amendment to regulation 5C of the Operator Liability Regulations in light of the amendment to regulation 2A of the International Travel Regulations to extend the exemptions in regulation 2A to persons travelling from Metropolitan France.

The Welsh Ministers’ Code of Practice on the carrying out of Regulatory Impact Assessments was considered in relation to these Regulations. As a result, a regulatory impact assessment has not been prepared as to the likely costs and benefits of complying with these Regulations.