The Department of Health has made a Statutory Rule entitled "The Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel, Operator Liability and Public Health Advice) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2021", (S.R. 2021 No. 17) which came into operation at 4.00 am on 30 January 2021.

The Statutory Rule amends the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Public Health Advice for Persons Travelling to Northern Ireland) (No. 2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2020 so that operators of commercial transport services from outside the common travel area to Northern Ireland are required to provide information to passengers about the requirement to possess notification of a negative coronavirus test result.

The Statutory Rule also amends the Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2020 to reduce the amount of passenger information that people travelling to Northern Ireland are required to provide on the UK Passenger Locator Form in order to comply with the requirement in regulation 3 of the International Travel Regulations, uplift of the Fixed Penalty Notices for non-completion of the UK Passenger Locator Form, update the air crew exemption from the requirement to possess notification of a negative coronavirus test result to ensure that crew who perform duties onboard aircraft in the interests of the safety of the aircraft, such as loadmasters, are exempt and include Burundi, Rwanda and United Arab Emirates in the list of countries and territories in Schedule 5 to the International Travel Regulations subject to additional measures.

Further, the Statutory Rule amends the Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel, Pre-Departure Testing and Operator Liability) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2021 so that operators are not required to ensure that a notification of a negative coronavirus test result is from a “qualifying test”, i.e. a test which meets the standards specified in paragraph 1 of Schedule 2A to the International Travel Regulations. Operators are required to check that passengers possess a notification of a coronavirus test which includes specified information, while liability for ensuring the result was from a qualifying test falls on the passenger.

The rule may be purchased from the Stationery office at www.tsoshop.co.uk or by contacting TSO Customer Services on 0333 202 5070, or viewed online at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisr