UK shutdown: travel to and from Scotland outlawed

Crossing the Scottish border will be illegal from the end of this week under radical new coronavirus restrictions called ‘deeply flawed’ by critics.

From 6pm on Friday, entering or leaving Scotland without a reasonable excuse is prohibited and anyone caught doing so could be fined £ 60.

The regulations have been criticized by opposition parties, who said they had “serious doubts” about the competence of Scottish ministers to implement the legislation.

According to a draft of the document released Thursday night, anyone living in Scotland should not travel to any other part of the common travel area (England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland), nor can anyone in those places travel to Scotland.

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People living within Level Three or Level Four lockdown areas, which include vast swaths of central Scotland, are also unable to leave their area. This means that they are prohibited from traveling abroad, even during holidays and to visit a second home, although people in levels 0 to two are not.

The restrictions on cross-border and internal travel are accompanied by a long list of exemptions.

Scots can leave the country, or its closed area, to feed an animal, donate blood or take a driving test.

Exemptions to the travel ban also apply for more common essential travel reasons, including health, work or study reasons.

Scottish Labor leader Richard Leonard criticized the ban as “deeply flawed” during questions from the prime minister today.

He said: ‘The vast majority of people are just trying to keep up with the regulations to comply with them. But the best case scenario is that this travel ban will confuse them. The worst case scenario is that it will criminalize them ”.

Meanwhile, Scottish Conservative MSP Adam Tomkins questioned whether the Scottish Parliament had the power to implement the restrictive ban.

He said: ‘On the one hand, freedom of movement would appear to be expressly reserved for the UK Parliament under Scottish Law.

“On the other hand, it is not clear that the Scottish Parliament can establish rules contrary to the common travel area, as agreed by the UK and Ireland.”

A Scottish government spokesperson refuted these claims.

They told The Guardian that the regulations were “entirely within the purview of the Scottish Parliament.”

The statement read: ‘Restrictions on unnecessary travel are established by law in various forms in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Ireland and in many parts of Europe. In Scotland, they are needed to support an approach that subjects different parts of the country to different levels of protection measures ”.

Wales closed its borders to people in England last month, while current regulations for England’s current lockdown prohibit regional and overseas travel without a reasonable excuse.

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