The tourism industry accused the UK government of trying to scare people into not going abroad after ministers announced a potential 10-year prison sentence for travellers who lie about where they have been.
The new measure will be brought in next Monday to coincide with the start date of the hotel quarantine system as ministers seek to buttress Britain’s security controls to keep out new variants of the virus.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged critics to get behind the plan and said the UK risked being "cut off from the rest of the world" if border measures were tightened further.
Mr Johnson was speaking hours after EU chief Ursula von der Leyen admitted mistakes in the delivery of vaccines across Europe.
To keep more vaccine supplies in Europe, the EU threatened to introduce temporary export restrictions between the bloc and Northern Ireland by invoking an emergency Brexit clause, a move that provoked anger in London, Dublin and Belfast.
“Mistakes were made in the process leading up to the decision and I deeply regret that,” she said.
To protect the UK's inoculation campaign from mutant strains, a maximum fine of £10,000 ($13,850) will be imposed on travellers from so-called red list countries – destinations deemed to be high-risk – who refuse to quarantine in a government-approved hotel.
Passengers who lie to authorities about where they have been risk a jail term of up to 10 years, longer than for some offences involving child abuse.
The UAE, South Africa, Portugal and all South American nations are among the 33 countries from which journeys to the UK are banned.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the public expected “pretty strong action” against people who deliberately lied about travelling to a high-risk country but he did not think the penalty would ever be used.
“I don’t expect that people are going to break the law in this way, and I don’t suspect it will need to be used, but the fines and the law will be there if required," he told LBC radio.
"People are unlikely, I think, given the size of tariff and the fines involved, to do this.”
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said he made “no apologies for the strength of these measures” as authorities dealt with the “strongest threats to our health that we’ve faced as a nation”.
“The virus doesn’t treat people differently just because they are better off and might be able to fly to Dubai for the weekend,” he said.
Travel industry bodies said the government was trying to scare people, with one calling the threat “over the top”.
“A 10-year prison sentence seems wildly OTT. People who kill and badly maim others don’t get that long in prison. They are trying to frighten people, in our view; they should have been stricter early on,” the Association of Independent Tour Operators said.
“We’re now 14 months into this pandemic and the constant changing of rules, when many people can’t even keep track of which day of the week it is, causes mayhem.”
Several senior Conservative backbenchers objected to the policy. Former attorney general Dominic Grieve said the 10-year sentence was draconian and a mistake.
"It is utterly disproportionate and the government should not be abusing the powers it has taken through parliament for this emergency," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "The House of Commons should pay attention to what the government is doing over this. You should not have disproportionate penalties of this kind."
Sir Geoffrey Cox, who was Mr Johnson's first attorney general, said: "I get that the secretary of state wants to show that this is serious but you do have to have regard to the overall balance of sentencing policy and law."
Other MPs raised doubts over whether the policy would ever take effect and called for a vote on the issue.
“We are suppressing this virus at all costs and I really would implore ministers to take stock. At some point we are going to have to see reason and let temperance reassert itself,” said Tory MP Steve Baker, deputy chairman of the Covid Recovery Group.
Sir Keir Starmer, leader of the opposition Labour party, accused Mr Johnson of being too slow to act on preventing new variants from entering the country.
Mr Johnson, however, said the government reduced the number of people arriving in the UK to about 8 per cent of the normal levels.
“People should understand that on a normal day at this time of year you could expect about 250,000 to be arriving in this country. We’ve got it down to about 20,000 – 5,000 of them who are involved in bringing in vital things into this country, such as medicines and food," he said.
“Unless he actually wants to cut this country off from the rest of the world – which I think last week he said he didn’t want to do, unless of course he’s changed his mind again – I think this policy is measured, proportionate, it’s getting tougher from Monday and I hope he supports it.”
Mr Shapps estimated that fewer than 1,000 people a day were arriving in the UK from the list of 33 banned countries, with more than 5,000 rooms “immediately available” for the hotel quarantine system.
“Next week, when people will have to pay £1,750 to stay in a hotel, we’ll find the numbers are pretty small. But we can increase hotel numbers very, very quickly, because we have those arrangements in place,” he said.
The plan comes as an Institute for Government report warned that the hotel quarantine system “is likely to prove a costly failure” if its aim was to prevent new variants entering the country.
The report concluded that “such a system will not, and cannot, eliminate the possibility of new variants spreading”.
What are the new rules for travellers?
All passengers are required to show a negative Covid-19 test taken 72 hours before departure on entry to the UK.
The government announced on Tuesday that two further tests should be taken during the 10-day quarantine period – on day two and day eight - regardless of whether isolating at home or in an approved hotel.
Those who fail to take a test face a £1,000 fine, followed by a £2,000 penalty and an extension to their quarantine period, to 14 days, if they miss the second test.
From Monday, travellers arriving from red list countries will be taken to an approved hotel where they will quarantine for 10 days under supervision.
Single adults will be charged £1,750 for a 10-day stay in a quarantine hotel, which covers the hotel, transfer and testing.
The hotel stay can be arranged on a new booking website that will be set up later in the week.
Passengers arriving in England face fines of up to £10,000 for failing to quarantine, and those who lie on their passenger locator forms face up to 10 years in jail.
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The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
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What the law says
Micro-retirement is not a recognised concept or employment status under Federal Decree Law No. 33 of 2021 on the Regulation of Labour Relations (as amended) (UAE Labour Law). As such, it reflects a voluntary work-life balance practice, rather than a recognised legal employment category, according to Dilini Loku, senior associate for law firm Gateley Middle East.
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“Any leave taken beyond statutory entitlements, such as annual leave, is typically regarded as unpaid leave in accordance with Article 33 of the UAE Labour Law. While employees may legally take unpaid leave, such requests are subject to the employer’s discretion and require approval.”
If an employee resigns to pursue micro-retirement, the employment contract is terminated, and the employer is under no legal obligation to rehire the employee in the future unless specific contractual agreements are in place (such as return-to-work arrangements), which are generally uncommon, Ms Loku adds.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
