Managed quarantine rules come into effect in Scotland

All international travellers flying directly into Scotland will have to enter managed isolation from today. 

Passengers will now be required to quarantine under supervision for 10 days in a hotel near Glasgow, Edinburgh or Aberdeen airports.

The approach differs from the UK Government, which has a system of hotel quarantine for returning residents from 33 red-listed countries.

Concerns were raised about the possibility of people using a loophole to travel on to Scotland after arriving in England. 

The transport secretary has requested Scotland-bound travellers arriving at English airports be offered quarantine facilities in England.

"We're going to continue to press the UK Government in order to do that," Michael Matheson told BBC Scotland's The Sunday Show. "I'm still waiting for a response. I pursued this matter with Michael Gove earlier this week. 

"We've made a formal request for them to put this in place. The danger is that if they don't act on this matter, they potentially undermine our public health approach here in Scotland. That's unacceptable.

"The other option would be that they provide us with the details of those individuals who are arriving into airports in England that are then transiting on to Scotland to ask them that they then report to a quarantine hotel in Scotland but the problem with that is these are individuals who are then going to be potentially travelling on public transport and the risk of actually spreading any new variant that they may be carrying. 

"That in itself would undermine exactly what the whole quarantine arrangements are meant to be for, so it's absolutely critical that the UK Government act on the clinical advice and put these arrangements in place to help to support our programme here in Scotland if they're not prepared to do it for England."

Passengers flying to Scotland from overseas will be required to book and pay for mandatory isolation through an online portal.

The cost of the first traveller in a room would be £1,750 with supplements for additional family members.

The booking includes a mandatory testing regime, with all arrivals to be tested twice - on day two and day eight after arrival.