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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

AIBU to ask if the quarantine is being enforced and what the fine is?

96 replies

alittleisland · 14/08/2020 20:22

I keep hearing about people coming back from Spain or wherever and not quarantining for 14 days. I thought that there could be random checks and if you were caught out, there was a big fine. Or did I dream this?

OP posts:
wanderings · 15/08/2020 08:33

@Lockheart

Out of interest, why would you ask MN this and not look at the official government site where the advice is actually published? I can't understand the logic.
Since when has "official government advice" been a paragon of truth? The "official" line is often very different from what actually happens. By asking on social media, people can get more of an idea of what really goes on.

The government is always talking about fines for this and that, with little or no intention of enforcing them; as others have said, the government have cut their own resources (i.e. the police) to do so. Instead, they concentrate on things which are easy and cheap to enforce, such as parking. They always have done, always will; even before the pandemic.

Remember also Sir Humphrey Appleby's observation in Yes Minister: "It's the law of inverse relevance: the less you intend to do about something, the more you have to keep talking about it." So they talk about fines, to scare the public, with little or no intention of actually applying them; just throwing in a few token ones to appear as if they're doing something, and to get a few headlines. It's performance politics, Saint Boris's (only) excellent quality.

They might use their facial recognition CCTV to try to enforce this, but people have their faces covered, on Boris's order: oops.

HandsOffMyRights · 15/08/2020 08:38

How on earth could the police come out for every breach?
They did not even come out when my neighbours were burgled recently, when four men were in the house and my poor neighbour was frightened for her and her baby.

Aposterhasnoname · 15/08/2020 08:38

I’m on my last day of quarantine. No ones checked. No one checked I’d completed my form when I entered the country either. I could easily have not done the form and not done quarantine (but secretly I’ve enjoyed it)

Delatron · 15/08/2020 08:41

I remember calling the police when my violent ex boyfriend was trying to kick my door down.

‘Sorry love we’ve had lots of stabbings in the area tonight’. They never came.

So are they going to put police power behind random spot checks? They do the phone call and hope that most comply.

ImAncient · 15/08/2020 08:42

I’ve just said on another thread that neighbours flew in from Spain to Luton. They didn’t complete the forms & no one checked. No idea whether they are quarantining or not. It’s a bit of a mess. If no one is checking then what’s the point!

Personally I don’t think you should be allowed to board flight etc without evidence that you’ve completed the forms.

SqidgeBum · 15/08/2020 08:47

I have family who have come to visit me in the UK and now have to quarantine when they go back, which they are fine with, but they have a track and trace app in their country which also gives them details on transmission rates and their sources.

Only 2% of transmissions in their country comes from international travel, compared to something like 42% from community transmission. I can see with figures like that why money isnt being thrown at this. I think it's more a way of keeping the public happy as they hate the idea of people flying in and possibly infecting people.

CallmeAngelina · 15/08/2020 08:49

If you have completed the forms though, and given your mobile number, they could track exactly where you are. I was told that a friend of a friend (yes, I know!) was fined £1000. He had left his mobile at home, but they called round and he wasn't in.

ODFOkaren · 15/08/2020 08:49

Someone I know is very diligently doing what they are supposed to and staying in for two weeks...

...after getting off the plane, taking public transport, going to McDonalds, then getting a taxi to her mums, dropping presents to her mum and having a catch up with the family there, getting a lift to the supermarket, doing a shop for two weeks and only then going home. But it’s okay as she now won’t go anywhere for two weeks.

Okay then! Confused

ODFOkaren · 15/08/2020 08:51

(She’s also a diligent Facebook user so this was all documented like every other movement she makes in a day before anyone asks how I know!)

LightAsTheBreeze · 15/08/2020 08:57

A lot of people will call in and get shopping on the way home, we always have to do this to get milk and other essentials, you can go home any way you want.

Doveyouknow · 15/08/2020 09:05

We are in quarantine and no one has checked we are complying nor did anyone ask whether we had completed our forms at border control (though we provided passport details in the form so perhaps they could see we had?). Even if they did check the UK government has no idea if I was telling the truth about where I went in Europe as there are no border checks within Europe...

alittleisland · 15/08/2020 09:09

@wanderings
Thanks for that, you outlined my exact reasons for asking the question.

OP posts:
NotPennysBoat · 15/08/2020 12:30

We've come back into Mchr airport today from a quarantine country. Our proof of completing the form was checked at passport control, and there were desks for people who hadn't completed it in advance. There's no way anyone would have got through without completing the form.

noses11 · 15/08/2020 12:39

Little enforcement is happening. If you can wfh, have supermarket deliveries, and stay each night at home, I expect nothing would happen.

Problems will possibly occur though if you play football for Celtic, take children into school, go to a place of work, or have fallen out with someone who will report you.

DubaiDublin73 · 15/08/2020 17:05

[quote alittleisland]@DubaiDublin73
So you are allowed to go to the supermarket? I you allowed to go outside for exercise an hour a day? Or is that a no-no?[/quote]
No to exercise, just to get food if we have no one to help. As I said we've just got deliveries instead and walked about the garden (very rural).

SheWranglesRugRats · 15/08/2020 17:10

Govt website says there will be Random checks on 20% Of quarantiners.

Delatron · 15/08/2020 17:19

I did read that about the random checks.

Will this be local police force or PHE? Manpower to do this? Think there were over 600,000 people from Spain and 500.000 from France.

Anybody had a random check? Friend had phone call:

CrumpetsAndPuzzles · 15/08/2020 19:24

Does anyone know if the ransom checks are just phone calls? And what happens if you miss a call because you’re in the shower or cooking dinner etc? Surely people can’t be expected to pick up their phone 24/7?

CrumpetsAndPuzzles · 15/08/2020 19:24
  • random checks!
nannynick · 15/08/2020 19:34

I too am wondering who will actually enforce things. I am already hearing that some parents coming back from holiday in France are expecting their children's nanny (who did not go to France and does not live with the family) to come in to work... yet the parents and children are supposed to be in quarantine. Waiting for Monday to see what actually happens, I hope the nanny does not go in to work.

So even if someone does self isolate who would enforce that they don't have other people go to visit... for work or social purposes?

InDeoEstMeaFiducia · 15/08/2020 19:40

There's no way there are the resources to enforce it. People who post their lives on social media are stupid AF.

But they don't check you on the way home and if you live with someone who hasn't been away they can do as they please.

The whole thing is just a posturing exercise to make them look like they're doing something.

Ponoka7 · 15/08/2020 19:47

They could redirect whole teams from the DWP etc, who usually do benefit checks, if they wanted to. We'd have to decide which is more important, national health, or something getting a bit of extra cash in to make ends meet.

I think we know the answer to that. The UK is a joke.

TheAirbender · 15/08/2020 19:51

I’m in Dubai and desperate to get home to see my Mum. I can’t make it work as quarantine means it’s too long to take off work. We have to have a negative test to board a flight here. My next door neighbours are German and ‘popped’ home...took a test on arrival and only had to quarantine until they got their results. I’d happily pay for a that! I don’t understand why a negative test can’t get you out of it in the UK when it seems acceptable elsewhere.

InDeoEstMeaFiducia · 15/08/2020 19:51

@Ponoka7

They could redirect whole teams from the DWP etc, who usually do benefit checks, if they wanted to. We'd have to decide which is more important, national health, or something getting a bit of extra cash in to make ends meet.

I think we know the answer to that. The UK is a joke.

DWP employees are not police.
ListeningQuietly · 15/08/2020 19:52

In England you definitely can’t go to the supermarket!
OH YES YOU CAN
www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-how-to-self-isolate-when-you-travel-to-the-uk/coronavirus-covid-19-how-to-self-isolate-when-you-travel-to-the-uk