Rejected petition Remove the threat of 10 years in prison for passengers lying on landing cards.

Rejected on 17 February 2021

Remove the threat of ten years in prison for arriving passengers found to be providing false information on landing cards. Passengers who have recently travelled from “red list” countries should not face the unnecessarily exaggerated threat of prison time for providing false information.

This is a grotesque threat which evokes needless fear at a time of crisis. This intimidation reflects the government’s view of freedom, already under scrutiny and the risk the government it trying to minimise by taking such a severe stance could be otherwise dealt with.

Why was this petition rejected?

It’s not clear what the petition is asking the UK Government or Parliament to do.

Under the Government's new policy requiring international travellers to book and stay in a quarantine hotel when returning from certain countries, the 10-year jail term referred to by Minister would the maximum penalty for anyone found to have falsified their travel history on the mandatory passenger locator form filled in by travellers when they arrive in the UK. This penalty is set out in the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981, but deciding whether to prosecute individuals and what if any sentence to apply in individual instances would be a matter for the Crown Prosecution Service and the courts, not the Government or House of Commons.

If you want the Government to end the requirement for individuals to have to fill in a passenger locator form, we could accept a petition requesting this.

We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.