Covid Vaccine Passports

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The introduction of vaccine passports will have enormous practical implications for businesses. The deadline is just three weeks away, yet the Government must provide clarity on legal authority and consequences for non-compliance. Carmichael also questions why nightclubs remain open safely since July if additional measures are needed now.

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The MP criticises the minister for defending a policy he previously deemed discriminatory and unnecessary. He argues that the measure will damage society’s fabric and is redundant as most agree on vaccine encouragement.

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The MP urges for clarity on the Government’s plan and asks about how vaccine certification will be implemented, who must implement it, support for staff at venues, and whether negative test options will be dropped. She also inquires about potential impacts on essential services.

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The MP argues that the policy is discriminatory, ineffective in reducing transmission, and unnecessary since Members of Parliament are not subject to such measures.

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The MP pays tribute to vaccination efforts and inquires about confirmation that no essential service will require a vaccine passport.

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The MP asks who would bear responsibility if fake vaccine passports are used and how it will be policed.

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The MP raises concerns about practical implementation and requests clear guidance on venues requiring a vaccine passport and additional funding for affected businesses.

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The MP criticises the policy as illiberal, discriminatory, and coercive.

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The MP almost feels sorry for the Minister but points out that he is struggling to defend this policy. She asks if the House will get a vote on the implementation of covid vaccine passports.

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The MP questions whether people who have had covid but not vaccinated should still need a passport to enter nightclubs. He also criticises the policy for being unnecessary and argues that it goes against a laissez-faire attitude.

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The MP questions how a nightclub will be defined compared to late bars with DJs playing music and asks why the policy should apply only to nightclubs when other crowded indoor venues, such as the Chamber and Lobby of the House of Commons, are open.

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The MP argues that protecting the population is the prime duty of any Government, even during a unique war with a virus like covid. He also suggests that the vaccine passport will encourage more people to get vaccinated.

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The MP argues against the policy stating there is no legal definition of what constitutes a nightclub. He also suggests that bouncers will be turned into legal officers to determine whether someone has had a placebo.

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The MP argues that the measures are unsupportable due to lack of rationale and questions whether this Government wishes to take powers that were deemed emergency powers and make them normal.

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The MP asks how the Minister can ensure that those with medical exemptions will not have further restrictions on their freedoms because of his vaccine passport plan.

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The MP asks if my hon. Friend confirms that the duration of these passports would only last as long as it is considered that the United Kingdom was in a pandemic state, not an endemic state.

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The MP questions what funding will be available to businesses and when they will receive it in order to implement the policy.

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The MP asks about additional incentives that can be offered to young people in order to take up the vaccine.

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The MP argues that many countries already introduce checks in hospitality and entertainment venues, and questions whether he will now cut through the hysteria and get on with it.

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On Sunday, I joined dozens of volunteers for a thank you event with Medicare Pharmacy for the 58,000 jabs that it has delivered to local people this year. What more, though, can the Minister do to encourage—I stress the word “encourage”—those who are still to have their jab to come forward and do so?

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Last week, I spoke to a constituent who is a widow with four children and has been working for the NHS on the frontline throughout the pandemic. One of her children has a range of very complex needs that can only be met by full-time residential care, and there is only one setting in the entire country that can meet his particular needs. She has been told that it cannot take him because of a shortage of care staff, and that the particular difficulty in recruiting at the moment is the requirement for care staff to have had two jabs. As the right hon. Member for Forest of Dean (Mr Harper), who is no longer in his place, highlighted, the vaccine does not prevent infection or the spread of covid. So why, given the crisis in recruitment of care staff, do we still have this requirement for two jabs when it is not effective and is depriving vulnerable people of the care they need?

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Make no mistake: vaccine passports will create a two-tier society with the hospitality industry having to police an unethical policy that will hammer its recovery. Given the Government’s own words that we need to live with this virus, will my hon. Friend confirm how long vaccine passports will be in place—if passed by this House?

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I thank the Minister for all the hard work he does and for answering these very difficult questions. It would seem that each region of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has differing versions of the system in relation to offering vaccine passports, and that confuses people whenever they read or hear it in the national news. What discussions have taken place with regional Administrations on this issue? Are there any plans to standardise each region to have a one-size-fits-all UK strategy that people can understand and follow?

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I congratulate the Minister and all those involved in the vaccination roll-out on four-fifths of over-16-year-olds now being double-vaccinated. This Government have worked night and day to ensure that we have the testing capacity to test over 1 million people a day, and many millions more with lateral flow tests as well. Surely a nightclub full of people who have tested negative is safer than a nightclub of people who are double-vaccinated.

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May I, on bended knee, implore my hon. Friend to summon all his courage and say no to vaccine passports to protect our civil liberties? He has been so courageous in the vaccine roll-out, so will he please protect our civil liberties and say no to vaccine passports?

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We have a whole summer’s worth of data from the events research programme that shows how organisers of events such as the British grand prix at Silverstone in my constituency had to meet extreme costs to put in the planning and the checking of vaccine passports at the gate. Before this policy is put to a vote in this House, will my hon. Friend commit to publishing the data on the cost to business of vaccine passport checks through the events research programme, so that we can be fully apprised of the cost of this policy?

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Like many across the House, I am instinctively wary of this idea. Will my hon. Friend give me a clear answer to a specific question: will right hon. and hon. Members receive a vote? For the avoidance of doubt, I am talking about a vote and not scrutiny of the policy.

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I am flabbergasted, depressed and annoyed that we are even discussing this matter. It is absolutely wrong on a fundamental level. Putting to one side the practical implications of how it will be policed, more important are the general data protection regulation implications of bouncers having medical data in their hands. What are we doing in regard to the data? Nightclubs have been open for over two months. Is there any data to support this policy, because I do not think there is?