Foreign business leaders coming to England from amber-list countries for essential
meetings can once again avoid quarantine, according to the UK’s department for
business, energy & industrial strategy (BEIS).
The Government announced the change in guidance on Monday,
four and a half months after the same guidance was suspended during the January
Covid wave.
The exemption from quarantine is aimed at executives who
have more than a 50 per cent chance of bringing ‘significant economic benefit’
to the UK by creating or preserving at least 500 UK-based jobs. The exemption can be used by executives based overseas who are part of multinational firms and visiting
their UK based subsidiaries or who are seeking to undertake exempt
activity in England related to either making a financial investment in a
UK-based business or establishing a new business within the UK.
The exemption does not apply if the activities can be done
remotely or can be done by someone who would not need to leave self-isolation.
The guidance from BEIS says that attending a routine board
meeting is unlikely to be considered essential while attending a board meeting
to decide on whether or not to make a new investment in a UK plant would be.
Routine sales meetings are also not allowed under the exemptions.
The exemptions have been criticised by some.
Responding to the news, Clive Wratten, CEO of the Business
Travel Association said: “The latest exemptions offer very little real help to
the business travel sector. Travelling for work is about much more than
starting new businesses. It is generating the energy that powers our homes,
humanitarian efforts in the field and making the programmes that have
entertained us through lockdown.
“The Government needs to enable small, medium and large
businesses to travel for work without impediment. Short-sighted, individual
exemptions continue to confuse and undermine confidence in international
travel.”
Abby Penston, CEO of the Focus Travel Partnership, said: “SMEs make up 80 per cent of jobs in the UK and over 99 per cent of all private sector businesses, so with this new allowance the government is ignoring the fundamental value smaller and medium-sized businesses bring to the economy. We call on the government to clarify and widen the parameters to allow the economy to open up further in a safe and responsible way.”
Speaking to the BBC, Craig Beaumont of the Federation of Small Business, said: "Small business owners and the self-employed often travel for their business, and it is wrong to declare this activity as of no significant economic benefit - and so outside of the government's plans.
"There should not be a fast lane of easements for big business while small firms are left behind."