Police are preparing to play a role in enforcing the detention of passengers in Covid quarantine hotels as the government scrambles to launch the stringent new system on 15 February.
Government-contracted security guards are expected to be stationed on each floor of the hotels and by entrances and exits to ensure travellers do not leave for 10 days after their arrival. Those refusing, or absconding from quarantine, could be subject to police action, with officers taking them back to the hotel, the Guardian understands.
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Police chiefs have been in discussions with the government about what their role would be, and those talks are continuing. A spokesperson for the National Police Chiefs’ Council said: “We are engaging with government to understand the implications of any announcements on operational policing.”
The new quarantine rules are being brought in to reduce the spread of variants that emerged in South Africa and Brazil weeks ago. They will apply to arrivals from a “red list” of countries from which most travel is already banned – so most of those quarantining are likely to be British citizens and those with residence rights who are still allowed to return home.
Government officials have been scrambling to secure hotel rooms and other services to get the system up and running. Tender documents provided to firms on Thursday night said they must be able to accommodate travellers for 10-day stints at a cost of £50 to £80 per room per night, including three meals a day. Hotels housing quarantining travellers are not permitted to welcome other guests, so managers would have to cancel existing bookings.
One London hotel manager said he received the invitation-to-tender document on Thursday evening, giving him less than 24 hours to consider whether his venue could meet the nine pages of requirements set out by the government.
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“I just don’t think we could work on that budget,” he said of the room rates. “Also, because we have stayed open we would have to cancel all the business we have got on our books. The tender is only for six weeks, so it doesn’t seem like the right decision. It might be a good route to reopening for hotels that have been closed.”
Hotels are being sought close to airports around the country, including Heathrow and Gatwick, Birmingham, Belfast and Glasgow, plus ferry ports and the Eurostar terminal in London. The government is understood to be contracting and paying hotels upfront, and will be reimbursed by travellers afterwards.
Quarantined travellers are expected to be served three meals a day in their rooms, including hot and cold options, with water, tea, coffee and fruit available. Security guards will escort guests who want to smoke or get fresh air to and from their rooms.
With the government looking to accommodate 1,000 to 1,500 new arrivals each day, Kate Nicholls, the chief executive of the industry body UKHospitality, said the number of rooms being talked about was small for an industry with a capacity of more than 800,000.
“We understand that the government is looking to contract a range of hotels because this is going to be at the customer’s cost,” she said. “They will want to be able to give people the choice of going budget and having the minimum level of service, or full service and paying that cost. Some people will want to have a suite or a bigger room. We envisage you will be able to top up your service if you want alcohol or additional food.”
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But a government source insisted the service would be a “flat rate” one, with passengers not given a choice of room.
The aviation and wider transport industry warned that time was running out to implement the quarantine policy. Airports said they were not contacted by government until the middle of this week, in what were described as basic fact-finding discussions.
An aviation source said: “There’s a lot more to it than they have originally thought. We have made clear it is very complex … you need to engage with us and have conversations about how it will work. How are you going to keep them separate? Who’s going to take them from baggage reclaim to quarantine hotel? Who is running it?”
A source at a major airport said they still had no idea how it would work, while another described increasing “anxiety over how something quite complex can be implemented, now there is a short actual timetable”.
Passengers are expected to be bussed to the hotels, but the Confederation of Passenger Transport, the industry body for coach and bus operators, said it had been contacted only in the last few days by government officials seeking advice. A spokesman said: “That will largely depend on where these hotels are. What they haven’t yet done is place any operators on standby.”
Ministers also wants to be prepared for changes in its travel ban list, which currently includes much of South America, Portugal and the UAE. The health secretary, Matt Hancock, said on Friday: “We’ll be vigilant in making sure that the hotel quarantine that we’re introducing applies to the right countries where we see these new variants.”
• Additional reporting from Nicola Davies and Heather Stewart
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