[alpine]

You only need to test before departure if you travel to a country that requires you to test before arrival. But from a UK perspective you don’t need to test before departure.

[alpine]

I think the fundamental question here is this: if the traveller leaves on Day 6, those enforcing the Day 8 Covid test won’t be aware of it, so from their perspective that travelled will be delinquent for not having done his Day 8 test. He may be flagged and pursued later when he’s back in the UK for his non-compliance. Basically, is there a way for the traveller to inform “them” not to wait for the Day 8 test, because he will have already left?

[SimonS1]

Contact CTM who are running it. DM on Twitter looks to be the best chance of a response.

[alpine]

CTM don’t matter at all in this. They’re just a contractor who facilitate (against £210 for most travellers or £1750 for Red List travellers) the logistics of sourcing the tests and delivering them to the customer, and for Red List, also the logistics of booking hotels and transporting people there and making sure they stay there.

The tests themselves come via Royal Mail and are returned also via Royal Mail. Their results go to “the Government” directly (I use quotation marks because it’s unclear to whom exactly), not to CTM. CTM are just low-grade intermediaries, a bit like Group4S running security for someone, or like these vermin who charge the state for providing school meals. They’re nobodies and they have no enforcement powers.

[SimonS1]

Isn’t it a logistics issue though? The point here is you don’t want the test issued.

The way the tests are returned and results issued is neither here no there if you are 5,000 miles away.

[alpine]

Well, let’s deconstruct this. Before you fly in you pay £210 to these goons for which they send you by Royal Mail two tests that you’re supposed to send back (pre-paid) to the lab that does them, on Days 2 and 8 respectively. Once you got these tests (and you can’t avoid not getting them once you paid £210; and you can’t avoid not paying £210 once you filled the Gov.uk form without which you can’t come to the UK on Day 0), then CTM is done with you. So you’ll have the tests. Up to you to use them, according to your legal obligations. If you travel out again on, say, Day 5, your Day 8 test will be left home in the UK, unused. And at some point, maybe, some PC Plod somewhere in “the Government” might realise you broke the law by not sending back a test on Day 8, and slap you a huge fine, not knowing that you’ve actually left the country on Day 5.

That’s the issue here.

[DavidSmith2]

[postquote quote=1094017]

There may be a very theoretical risk of this, but it’s also worth noting that you also do not need to take the test on day 8 if you test positive on day 2. For anyone to be fined for non-completion of the day 8 test, the authorities would need to know quite a bit about your circumstances (i.e. what was the result of your first test? are you still in the country?). It is certainly the case that leaving quarantine to travel to somewhere outside of the common travel area is legitimate at any stage. Personally I would not worry about being fined – I’d be more concerned that you cannot claim back the money for the second test!

[SimonS1]

[postquote quote=1094017]

Of course you pay for the tests, if you don’t use them then that’s a choice you make (the alternative being don’t travel to uk).

As for missing the test, well clearly you wouldn’t pay any fine and instead just provide a copy of the air ticket. Not that hard, really.

[alpine]

There may be a very theoretical risk of this, but it’s also worth noting that you also do not need to take the test on day 8 if you test positive on day 2. For anyone to be fined for non-completion of the day 8 test, the authorities would need to know quite a bit about your circumstances (i.e. what was the result of your first test? are you still in the country?). It is certainly the case that leaving quarantine to travel to somewhere outside of the common travel area is legitimate at any stage. Personally I would not worry about being fined – I’d be more concerned that you cannot claim back the money for the second test!

Well, there’s no option of booking and paying for just one test. It’s both or bust (bust being you ain’t coming in in the first place). So there’s no way to claim anything back — you first pay £210 and you get 2 tests, and that’s your only option. As they say, sorry Charlie.

As for the argument that you don’t have to take the Day 8 test if Day 2 test turns out positive, I suppose that’s true, but from a financial and logistical point of vote that’s specious. They’re already set to fleecing the travellers, and to making their life miserable — probably deliberately so, as a deterrent — so the notion that you’re positive and are now stuck with a useless virgin test worth over a hundred quid would make the Government shed crocodile tears… boo hoo, etc. They’ll say that this is what happens to you if you dare to travel in and on top of it bring ‘Rona to Blighty.

I think the issue here is just compliance and fines. The actual cost is by now a sunk cost, a write-off.

[alpine]

As for missing the test, well clearly you wouldn’t pay any fine and instead just provide a copy of the air ticket. Not that hard, really.

Yeah, but it’s a hassle. Have you ever been issued with a fixed penalty notice? In some cases you need to go to court to get rid of it. It will take time, nerves, possibly money. So, really, it may not be *impossible*, but it’s certainly hard, really. It would be much more elegant if there was a way to get these people off your case before it even happens. I’m not aware of an avenue for that. You have to just live in hope.

[Author]

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