THE SCOTTISH Government has confirmed that arrivals to Scotland from outside the Common Travel Area will need to pay £1750 to stay in a quarantine hotel from next Monday. 

Transport secretary Michael Matheson said six hotels close to Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow had been booked for the new regime, with travellers required to stay in their rooms for ten days.

The minister said the stringent measure was "vital" to stop new variants getting into the country. 

The Scottish arrangements are tougher than those put in place by the UK Government, where only arrivals from a “red-list” of high risk countries will need to quarantine. 

Matheson said he still hoped his counterparts in Whitehall would follow Scotland’s lead and drop their "targeted, reactive approach".

Matheson said: "We know that is not sufficient and we have therefore gone further."

He added: “It is clear that to manage the risk of importation of new variants and to give vaccine deployment the best chance to bring us closer to normality here in Scotland, we have to place further limitations on international travel.

“For these to be as effective as possible, I will continue to encourage UK ministers to match our ambition and help protect Scotland and all of the UK.”

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The government said they were still working out the costs of quarantining for those not travelling alone. Matheson also said there would be a Managed Isolation Welfare Fund to help those who cannot afford the charge. 

The minister said there was a need to cut down on existing travel exemptions, including limiting overseas training for elite sportspeople to athletes and coaches preparing for the Olympics and Paralympics.

A small number of arrivals will not be required to isolate, such as those involved in essential supply chains for goods coming into Scotland.

In England, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said passengers said the passengers coming from the 33 “red list” countries could face fines of up to £10,000 if they failed to quarantine.

He also warned that those who lie on their passenger locator forms could even face up to 10 years in jail.

Instead of a blanket quarantine, England will adopt a new “enhanced testing” regime for all international travellers, with two tests required during the quarantine process from Monday.

Hancock told the Commons: “People who flout these rules are putting us all at risk.

“Passenger carriers will have a duty in law to make sure that passengers have signed up for these new arrangements before they travel, and will be fined if they don’t, and we will be putting in place tough fines for people who don’t comply.

“This includes a £1000 penalty for any international arrival who fails to take a mandatory test, a £2000 penalty for any international arrival who fails to take the second mandatory test, as well as automatically extending their quarantine period to 14 days, and a £5,000 fixed penalty notice – rising to £10,000 – for arrivals who fail to quarantine in a designated hotel.”

He added: “I make no apologies for the strength of these measures, because we’re dealing with one of the strongest threats to our public health that we’ve faced as a nation.”