What does end of UK quarantine mean for travel insurance?

From July 10 it will be possible to travel between France and England without the 14-day quarantine requirements, which is also good news for travel insurance. The new quarantine rules only apply to travel to and from England. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland still have quarantine measures in place for international travellers.

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The dropping of the requirement by the UK for people to self-isolate if arriving from France into England will coincide with a a change to the FCO’s travel advice for the country, meaning that the UK government will no longer formally advise against all but ‘essential’ travel to France.

France is also expected at the same time to drop its 'tit for tat' requirement for people arriving from England to self-isolate.

When the FCO travel advice changes it will also remove the strong risk of UK travel insurance to cover a trip to France (for residents in England) being invalidated in the case of a claim if you visit for a ‘non-essential’ reason such as a holiday or to visit a second home.

The Association of British Insurers previously told The Connexion that most UK travel policies – covering areas including baggage loss, private medical care, repatriation, cancellation due to illness etc – would be invalidated if used for a leisure trip to France while the current advice remained in place.

Since March the FCO’s travel advice for all foreign countries has been against ‘non-essential’ trips but the FCO and Department of Transport say this will change next week for the countries for which the UK is dropping its quarantine rule.

This means that people will soon be able to visit France without concerns about whether there is an urgent reason for the trip – good news for any residents in England who have a French second home or enjoy visiting the country.

Good news too for those who work in the tourist industry in France.

It also comes as many airlines are increasing their offer of flights between the UK and France.

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