What are the "legally permitted reasons" for international travel FROM the UK?

score:6

Accepted answer

On the UK side of things, you can't leave home but for the reasons outlined at https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/1200/part/2/made. Doesn't include tourism I'm afraid.

Unless the flights are cancelled and/or restrictions lifted, the only legal option is to forfeit your ticket with only a tax refund or possibly a full-value voucher (which becomes smoke if the airline goes bust).

Wait and see if the restrictions are lifted and/or the flights cancelled. If neither happens by March, like I said, you have limited recourse unless prepared to break the law.

Upvote:5

All the below applies to England only, which I have assumed is your location based on the reference to the gov.uk guidance for England. Answers for Scotland, Wales and NI will all vary.

On the gov.uk website, the legally permitted reasons for travel are the same as those for leaving your home, which is why they are not repeated.

You can find these near the top of the page you linked at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/national-lockdown-stay-at-home#summary-what-you-can-and-cannot-do-during-the-national-lockdown

Leaving home

You must not leave, or be outside of your home except where necessary. You may leave the home to:

  • shop for basic necessities, for you or a vulnerable person
  • go to work, or provide voluntary or charitable services, if you cannot reasonably do so from home
  • exercise with your household (or support bubble) or one other person (in which case you should stay 2m apart). Exercise should be limited to once per day, and you should not travel outside your local area.
  • meet your support bubble or childcare bubble where necessary, but only if you are legally permitted to form one
  • seek medical assistance or avoid injury, illness or risk of harm (including domestic abuse)
  • attend education or childcare - for those eligible

This is the UK government interpretation of the regulation, as mentioned by other answers the actual legal instrument can be found here: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/1200/part/2/made

In addition, the part of the gov.uk site that you have quoted from specifically states:

This means you must not go on holiday.

Which seems fairly unambiguous.

It's not clear to me that this is being enforced at all in practice however.

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