Thank you for contacting me about vaccine passports, or COVID status certification.
I am incredibly proud of the progress that the UK is making in vaccinating the population, with one in three adults receiving their first dose, and I am delighted that the Government reached the goal of offering a vaccine to priority groups 1-4, over 15 million people, by 15 February.
While I understand that a range of options is being considered to encourage people to receive the vaccine, the Government does not plan to make the COVID-19 vaccination mandatory.
As set out in the Government’s Roadmap towards easing restrictions, four programmes of work have been established to consider different aspects of how the UK should handle COVID-19 from summer onwards. One of these is a review into whether COVID-status certification could play a role in reopening our economy, reducing restrictions on social contact and improving safety.
Of course, COVID-status certificates raise complex ethical and discriminatory issues that would need to be worked through. This is something I know the Government and the Prime Minister are conscious of and I welcome the fact that the Government is considering these issues fully as part of the review.
I am satisfied that steps will be taken to appropriately consider the impact of any certification approach and, if necessary, apply relevant safeguards. As such I do not feel a Medical Freedom Bill like the one you describe is required, though I will ensure your concerns are passed on. I have set out more detail from the Government's Roadmap below.
It is right that we rule out no options at this stage. Conclusions and the outcome of the review will be set out in advance of Step four of the Roadmap. As the Prime Minister has said, it may be that there is a role for certification in the future, but for now the emphasis is rightly on our vaccination and testing programmes.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.
Craig Whittaker MP
March 2021
Background: Text from Roadmap
The Government's Roadmap states:
"Some measures may be required even after all adults have been offered a vaccine, because neither coverage nor effectiveness of the vaccine will be 100%. As a result, a significant proportion of the population will remain vulnerable to infection, some of whom will also be vulnerable to severe disease and death. This is reflected in the modelling of different scenarios for unlocking restrictions, which shows that the risk of further cases, hospitalisations and deaths remains after the adult population has been vaccinated, though modellers advise there is considerable uncertainty in these figures.
The Government is therefore establishing four programmes of work to consider different aspects of how the UK should handle COVID-19 from summer onwards.
COVID status certification
COVID status certification involves using testing or vaccination data to confirm in different settings that people have a lower risk of transmitting COVID-19 to others.
The Government will review whether COVID-status certification could play a role in reopening our economy, reducing restrictions on social contact and improving safety. This will include assessing to what extent certification would be effective in reducing risk, and the potential uses to enable access to settings or a relaxation of COVID Secure mitigations. The Government will also consider the ethical, equalities, privacy, legal and operational aspects of this approach and what limits, if any, should be placed on organisations using certification. It will draw on external advice to develop recommendations that take into account any social and economic impacts, and implications for disproportionately impacted groups and individuals’ privacy and security. The Government will set out its conclusions in advance of Step 4 in order to inform the safe reopening of society and the economy."