Newbtravelle

I am trying to understand the policing of the transit exemptions clauses in the corona SI:""remains within their port of entry until their departure from England, or..."

Does this technically mean that you need to stay in the airport building during a landside overnight transit.

prof

I am not a professor of law, but in my (recent) experience on an overnight transit at LHR, the border officers were following the published UK government guidance, not the letter of the law itself, and the published guidance explicitly grants an exemption from quarantine and testing requirements for overnight landside transits (though the guidance does now also say you have to remain in your port of entry, so it’s a little self-contradictory). In any event, it was not a problem at all to leave the terminal building to stay at a local hotel overnight, and the border officer volunteered directions both to the Heathrow Express and the tube.

Newbtravelle

Yep you raise in interesting point. I have noticed that the enforcement of the law can differ (more than) slightly from the literal interpretation. (I experienced this with the spain regs, where the law said my entry was definitely not allowed - yet gov agency + timatic said yes and it worked out).

My arrival experience yesterday was similar, no questions about where I would be staying during transit.

KARFA

You can go to a hotel and self isolate there overnight.

konagirl2

My opinion / interpretation is that the statement is describing what "transit passenger" means in reference to the Health Legislation specifically. If you are leaving the port to stay overnight you are not exempt from self-isolation because you are not a transit passenger as defined in that SI. So even though in normal parlance you are in transit, you are subject to the same entry requirements as non-transit passengers arriving in England, you should go directly to your place of self-isolation (a hotel or other accommodation) and then back to the airport, you are not free to go sightseeing.

That is assuming you are arriving as an amber-list arrival (only been in amber list or green list countries in the last 10 days).