The UK’s border entry system does not appear to be set up for island residents transiting through the UK, resulting in unexpected fines for one traveller.

Travel writer Steven Primrose-Smith told us about his ’fiasco’ of travelling to the island via car from Spain, saying that the UK’s Passenger Locator Form [PLF] system is ’discriminating’ against Manx residents travelling through Britain.

Mr Primrose Smith had been permitted to enter the island for three weeks on compassionate grounds and was allowed to bypass UK quarantine as he was driving straight from Portsmouth docks to Heysham.

Mr Primrose-Smith described how fines are ’unavoidable’ for Manx [or Jersey] residents transiting through the UK in this way, as the PLF system [which everyone entering the country must go through] does not make any provision for island residents or those in his situation, making the journey a ’needlessly painful ordeal’.

Issues first arose when he saw that none of the options on the form, which he filled out before arriving in Portsmouth, applied to his situation as someone travelling straight onward to the island.

The options were: ’1) Are you staying in the UK? 2) Are you repeatedly re-entering the UK (like a haulier)? 3) Are you transferring from one flight to another?’.

Mr Primrose-Smith picked option three, ’hoping the omission of ferry transfer was an oversight’.

Selecting this option meant he was not asked to provide a Covid test kit reference, which he thought ’made sense’ as he would be leaving the UK immediately.

However, after arriving at Portsmouth he was told by customs officers that he was supposed to have bought a test kit, and was issued a £1,000 fine for not having one.

He was then told by an officer that he could now order a £210 test kit and have it sent to the island, and after producing a negative test here, bypass the island’s quarantine.

Mr Primrose Smith described this as ’dangerous misinformation for anyone who believed him and acted upon it’, as not quarantining on arrival here would result in a Manx prison sentence.

After being given an iPad with the test kit order form, the system would not accept Mr Primrose-Smith’s Manx address - and it also required kits to be returned via a priority postbox, of which there are none on the island.

Mr Primrose-Smith said these oversights showed that the Isle of Man and Channel Islands ’were never on the UK government’s minds’.

Despite the fact that non-completion of test-kits carried the threat of an extra £2,000 fine, after arriving here he called the UK test kit helpline number, and was told that he would not need to bother returning them as he was already taking the Manx tests.