Speaking at Abta’s Travel Law Seminar on Tuesday (May 22), the association’s director of legal affairs, Simon Bunce, said Abta was expecting a first draft from the Department for Business, Energy and Industry Strategy (BEIS) – the department responsible for implementation of the new PTRs – “in the next few days”.
However, he said these would then go out to a “short period of consultation” with the industry before being “issued in June”, around “two weeks before implementation”.
The new PTRs set out a wide range of new obligations for package travel organisers, including new definitions both of packages and organisers, as well as new liabilities.
“The aim is to make sure we are not flying off in a completely different direction,” said Bunce.
“We knew 2018 was going to be a tough year, but we didn’t understand just how tough.”
The PTRs are the UK’s interpretation of the EU’s Package Travel Directive (PTD), published in December 2015. BEIS missed this year’s January 1 deadline to enshrine the PTD in UK law, with the PTRs finally published on April 16.
Associated changes to the Atol scheme are still yet to be published, despite two separate industry consultations.
“Six months [to deal with the PTRs] would have been a luxury,” said Bunce.
“The Atol changes are still yet to be published. How are we supposed to prepare when the regulations are not even in place?
“This is unacceptable, really. I have not known a situation like this in the 20 years I have been in this industry.
"The industry has pulled together though over the past 12 months. We’ve seen companies working together. It has shown the industry at its best.”
Rhys Griffiths, partner and head of travel group at law firm Fieldfisher, later addressed the conference on travel operators’ obligations under the new regulations: “The BEIS guidance is going to be very important, as will the new Atol standard terms,” he said.
Griffiths said he met with the CAA last week, the body responsible for drafting changes to the Atol scheme, and was told the amendments would likely be published by June 1 following approval by the Department for Transport.
TTG approached both BEIS and the CAA for clarification on the proposed timetables for the PTR guidance notes and changes to Atol standard terms respectively.
A spokesperson for BEIS said the mid-June estimate, albeit aspirational, would likely be accurate.
The CAA has not yet responded to TTG’s approach for clarity.
