Union says officers told not to check green and amber arrivals for Covid tests
Travellers from green and amber list countries may no longer face a Covid test check on arrival, according to ISU.
The union, that represents border staff, said that officers will no longer routinely check for a negative test result and the passenger locator form.
The move aimed to reduce queues, said The Guardian.
However, the government moved to say that all necessary checks were being carried out including forms and test bookings.
A spokesperson went on to say: “This legal requirement on carriers is underpinned by a robust compliance regime, which is overseen by regulators.
“Compliance with these rules is essential in order to protect the population from new variants of Covid-19, and so there will be tough fines for those who do not follow the rules.”
It has led to Labour’s shadow home secretary, Nick Thomas-Symonds, to accuse the government of “yet more staggering incompetence”. He urged them to “get a grip”.
The Guardian, who broke the story, said they had seen a leaked memo that said border staff no longer needed to search for a passenger locator form when the computer system failed to find one.
The memo also reportedly confirmed that electronic border gates “will no longer refer passengers to in-person checks by Border Force officers if a passenger locator form is not found”.
Queues of up to six hours were blamed on 100 per cent of Covid forms being checked.
Lucy Moreton of the ISU trade union said: “Certainly, it will reduce queue times significantly and hopefully also the level of verbal abuse to which Border Force staff are subject.
“That is welcome to us. The impact on the UK’s Covid security is ultimately a scientific determination.”