SCOTTISH public health officials have been unable to carry out follow-up checks on travellers returning to Scotland from abroad, as they lacked the correct clearance from the Home Office, the Health Secretary has said.

Jeane Freeman said the issue was now being resolved.

Since June 8, anybody flying into the country is obliged to quarantine themselves for two weeks.

Travellers are expected to fill in a passenger locators form with details of the address they’ll be staying in for the first 14 days of their stay in the UK, and details of any train, bus or ferry they’re using to get there.

Anyone caught breaching the quarantine rules can be fined between £500 and £5000.

Around 20% of travellers coming into Scotland should have been contacted to make sure they were following the rules.

Yesterday, the Sunday Post reported that no calls had been made.

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Police Scotland have also confirmed that no penalty notices have been issued.

The calls are being made in England, Wales and Northern Ireland with people being called three times over three days and a text message for reply sent on the fourth day.

When asked about the why this hadn’t happened in Scotland, the Health Secretary said the calls here would begin here in the coming days.

Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday Politics Scotland show, Freeman said: “We had to have our Public Health Scotland officials’ security cleared in order to access the Home Office systems.

“That’s the system you need to access to get passenger data – in order to protect people’s data.

“That has been resolved and those follow-up calls will begin this week.”

She said Public Health England was already a part of the Home Office system while the equivalent agency in Scotland was not.

Tory health spokesman Miles Briggs said it was “unbelievable and unacceptable”. He added: “SNP ministers need to explain why their planning has been dysfunctional and incompetent and left Scotland exposed in this way.”

It’s expected the first follow-up calls will be made later this week, once the Scottish Government has announced the list of countries which will be exempt from quarantine measures.

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These so-called air bridges were put in place in England on Friday. There has been no agreement between the governments in London, Edinburgh and Cardiff over which countries should be exempt.

Both the first ministers of Scotland and Wales have described the planning as shambolic because of repeated last-minute changes to the list of countries.

Nicola Sturgeon has said that while there is broad agreement over the countries which are “low-risk”, there has been some disagreement over those classed as “medium risk”.

She said on Friday that Holyrood’s ability to make “difficult and complex” decisions on the issue had been undermined by the shifting position of ministers in London.