FINES for breaking Covid self-isolation rules could be increased from £1,000 to £5,000, it has been reported.
Ministers are said to be considering the fine hike in a bid to improve compliance.
🦠 Read our coronavirus live blog for the latest news & updates
About 20,000 a day who had been told to self-isolate are still coming into contact with others, Baroness Dido Harding of Winscombe, the head of the Test and Trace programme, said this week.
The government is reportedly considering increasing the fines for a first breach of rules with repeated breaches rising to as much as £10,000.
A government source told The Times: "The level of fines in the UK is significantly lower than elsewhere.
“We are looking at whether they are sufficient.”
Baroness Harding appeared before MPs on the health and science select committee this week, and said that internal surveys suggested that less than 60 per cent of people told to isolate were fully complying.
She pointed to figures from last week showing that 100,000 people a day were told to isolate, meaning “circa 20,000 people a day” were not doing so fully.
She said: “My biggest concern about people not isolating is not actually the 20 per cent of people, let’s say, who were not following that instruction; it’s the people who feel ill but don't come forward for testing at all because they’re scared.”
The government is also said to be considering an increase of fines for people who fail to fill in passenger locator forms on arrival in the UK.
It comes as just one in four people arriving in the UK is checked to see if they come from a Covid hotspot, figures have revealed.
And only one in ten gets a call to ensure they are self-isolating, with most just receiving a text.
The stats were released just before it was revealed that hotel quarantine will start on February 15.
Border Force officers have checked more than 3.6 million passenger locator forms since June — but that is only 24 per cent of arrivals.
Source: Read Full Article