well it was never the case all international travel was going to be banned. I can’t see you can wedge leisure travel in to any of those explicitly listed reasons though. And for the ones listed you will note the inclusion of the phrase “reasonably necessary” as well quite often. A shopping trip to Dubai isn’t going to cut it.

I'm really curious about how this SI treats foreign nationals who choose to return to their home country during November. I wonder if it would be covered by:

In which "outside P's home" would be their country of origin, and "any place where P was on holiday" would be the UK.

I wonder how it would define returning home from holiday, we're currently on holiday in the UK with a hotel Mon-Wed and then another hotel Wed-Fri, it's not really clear whether we should be checking out and heading home on Thursday or whether we just return home Friday as planned. As always, the devil is in the detail and somewhat open to interpretation......

Yes I did wonder that too that provision seems to be aimed at those returning from holiday outside England to their home in England. Will have another read through in a minute and see if I can find anything else.

Exactly; I honestly don't think they've thought of this case.

Let's see what happens tomorrow when we try to check in, I guess! I suppose breakfast will be modified, on Friday we received an e-mail saying no buffet but will be ala-carte. All good. Assume that will change for Thursday morning as restaurants are closed; assume that refers to in-dining venues at hotels too?

The hotel we're at now has a buffet, albeit the hot food is manned by staff. First buffet I've had since COVID-19 times, bit of a novelty :tu:

Essentially anyone with foreign ties (family, business, legal matters to deal with, etc.) can travel abroad, of which people are in the millions that fall into that category, but again I don't see many people travelling during this time, students will likely wait till December, most of the students I know that are from Europe have tickets booked around 10-15 December. Foreign nationals wanting to see family will probably also wait till mid December, and that is my intention anyway unless there is armageddon!

Two Questions pop-up for me, which might be a cost-effective way to leave the UK:

-Can your linked household be in another country than in the UK? This would then provide a reasonable excuse.
- Based on the wording you are allowed to collect food and drink from a business. Must this business be in the UK or can I just order a fantastic Pizza for collection from my favorite Pizza Place in Italy for collection? :D

Right, so I spoke to a lawyer friend of mine who works for the GOV (in a different department) and their interpretation on this clause was that it does include England etc. Bolding the words below that my friend noted.

Exception 11: Returning home (15) Exception 11 is that it is reasonably necessary for P to be outside P’s home to enable P to return home from any place where P was on holiday immediately before these Regulations came into force.

Isn't there a big chance it will close as of Thursday anyway? Doubt there is enough business traffic, especially in rural places, to keep hotels open.

yes that would be my reading. You will note that is preceded by the phrase “reasonably necessary” though.

If the hotel I'm at right now any indication (i.e. quite busy), I'd say there's a good chance it'll still be open; at least till the end of this week.

Indeed! You could say it's counter acted by the text around not spending nights away from 'home' too. Ah, gotta love it.

You will be fine, you are in the reasonableness area, the objective of these clauses is to prevent people either going on holiday from Thursday, and/or using second homes for leisure purposes (though they could go to one tomorrow and stay put).

From my reading of it, nothing would prevent someone from Scotland to travel to Manchester or Newcastle and travel from there (or connect via LHR), provided that the corridors system and scotgov don't change, right? (I have no such plans and am working right up to Christmas, so I am just curious.)