Forex Trading For Beginners 2021: Coronavirus: Hotels 'yet to hear anything' on quarantine plan

A large hotel chain says it has not had "any discussions at all" with the UK government over plans to introduce mandatory quarantine for travellers.

Best Western Hotels boss Rob Paterson said he had offered support but was "yet to hear anything" back.

"I'm not sure I'd have a job if I did that in my company," he told the BBC.

In January, Boris Johnson said UK nationals and residents returning from Covid hotspots would have to quarantine in government-provided hotels.

But no start date has been set.

Mr Johnson told a Downing Street press conference on Wednesday that his colleague, Health Secretary Matt Hancock, would make a further announcement on the plans - and the timetable - on Thursday.

But later, No 10 said the prime minister had been "misinformed".

Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi told BBC Breakfast an "operational plan" would be announced in "the coming days" by Mr Hancock.

There has been growing pressure on the government to introduce tougher border restrictions in the UK after emergence of new coronavirus variants from other countries, such as South Africa.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps introduced the requirement for travellers to have a negative test result before arriving in the UK last month, but critics continued to call for mandatory quarantine in hotels for all arrivals - echoing similar moves in Australia and New Zealand.

At the end of January, Mr Johnson confirmed this rule would be introduced, but only for UK nationals and residents returning from 30 "red list" Covid hotspots.

But Labour has continued to call for the UK to go further, with its leader, Sir Keir Starmer, saying at Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday: "Why does the prime minister think that the variants of the virus will behave differently and only arrive by direct flights?"

Mr Johnson said it was "not practical completely to close off this country", but claimed the UK already had "one of the toughest regimes in the world" at its borders.

'We know absolutely nothing'

The new hotel quarantine measure was announced last week, but no further details on when it will come into force have been provided by the government.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, the boss of Best Western, which has 250 hotels in the UK, said beyond "very broad information" about timings, hoteliers had not had "any discussions at all" with government.

Mr Paterson added: "In any normal company, if you went out and announced a programme nationally and you hadn't thought about how you were going to plan that, and you hadn't spoken to the people involved… I'm not sure I'd have a job if I did that in my company".

He said his industry "needed some assurance of what demand levels are going to be", as well as clarification on "security protocols".

The Immigration Services Union - which represents workers for the UK Border Force - also claimed "nothing has been communicated" to them or staff.

The organisation's professional officer, Lucy Moreton, told Today that while the "expectation" is their involvement will be minimal, "at this stage, we know absolutely nothing".

She added: "We don't know if the Border Force officers are going to be expected to determine whether someone should quarantine or not - or whether that will be done on the passenger locator form, or on an honesty basis."

Have you recently entered the UK from a hotspot such as South Africa? Are you planning to travel soon? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.

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