Passengers coming to the Bailiwick will need to demonstrate their travel is essential by applying for an Essential Travel Permit.

The permit will be required for any journeys made from 00.01 Thursday 14 January 2021.

This includes any resident who decides to travel out of the Bailiwick with the intention of returning.

To apply for an Essential Travel Permit, travellers need to fill out a form on https://covid19.gov.gg/guidance/travel/essential-travel. 

Provided their journey meets the criteria, they will be receive a permit within 48 to 72 hours.

They will need to have this permit before they travel and may be asked to show it at the point of departure or when they arrive in the Bailiwick.

Legislation has been enacted meaning entering the Bailiwick of Guernsey without an Essential Travel Permit is unlawful, and you may be prosecuted and could be fined up to £10,000.

Those travelling as critical workers are treated as essential so do not need an Essential Travel Permit, but they must apply for permission to travel through the existing critical worker application process.

Alongside the Essential Travel Permit, the detail of what is considered ‘essential’ has been reviewed further.

As well as critical workers, essential travel is considered to mean:

• for a compassionate purpose (including but not limited to supporting a dependent relative),
• to receive medical treatment, to accompany a child or vulnerable person into or out of the Bailiwick,
• to undertake essential business activity which is critical to the business and cannot be carried out remotely,
• to meet legal obligations such as attending court proceedings,
• to attend or return from school, university or other further education, for anyone ordinarily Bailiwick residents,
• to return home if they travelled off Island before the 12th January,
• moving to the Bailiwick where a property has been purchased and the process of moving is already underway,  
• to take up employment where the position has already been secured with a local employer or where the work is essential.

Essential travel does not include travel:

• to visit friends and family based in the Bailiwick,
• to work remotely in the Bailiwick if that work is not critical work and approved through the critical worker application process,
• to stay at a ‘second home’ where the person is not ordinarily resident in the Bailiwick.

Those who travel with an Essential Travel Permit will still be required to adhere to all of the Bailiwick’s other travel restrictions including self-isolation and testing rules.

Paul Whitfield, Chief Executive of the States of Guernsey said “Our aim here is to prevent people travelling unnecessarily, and that way reduce the number of passenger movements, which in turn reduces the risk to our community. This is our first priority.

"COVID-19 is having a huge impact on the jurisdictions around us and we have to treat the risk with the utmost seriousness. That means unless your journey is truly essential, do not travel. We’re keeping this process as simple as possible, and we know there will be some people who feel they fall into a grey area and aren’t clear if their journey is essential.

"We would advise these people to make an application. Our officers will be applying a common sense approach to this. But it won’t be a soft approach, we will be strict in ensuring any journey that clearly isn’t essential is declined. We know that will leave some people unhappy and we sympathise but this is a decision the CCA have made to protect the community at a critical point in the world’s response to the pandemic.”