Government to review implementation of new Package Travel Regulations

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), which drafted the new regulations, confirmed to TTG this week a review was under way and “would be published in due course”.

A BEIS spokesperson declined to comment on the scope of the review, other than stating it would focus on the first year of the new regulations.

The PTRs formed the basis of the government’s implementation of the latest EU Package Travel Directive (PTD), with the Department for Transport and CAA responsible for changes to the Atol scheme.

“The Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations (PTR 2018) provide a greater level of protection to UK holidaymakers by bringing many modern methods of booking package holidays (for example online) into scope.

“The effect of PTR 2018 is to increase the number of packages that have insolvency protection in place so that consumers are refunded and, where appropriate, repatriated if the organiser becomes insolvent.”

The department, though, faced heavy criticism from the travel sector for its handling of the roll-out after publishing a first draft of the new terms just 10 weeks before implementation, despite the PTD having been published in December 2015.

Meanwhile, guidance notes promised to the travel sector to aid the transition failed to materialise until after the legislation had come into force.

“BEIS have done absolutely nothing at all,” Alan Bowen, legal advisor to the Association of Atol Companies, told TTG.