NHSX website doesn’t reveal vaccine passport roll out

Posts on social media, YouTube and an article on the website The Exposé, have used a passage of text from the NHSX website as evidence to claim that the government will “definitely” be introducing vaccine passports “in the UK”, by December this year.

However, this is not accurate. The passage on the NHSX website that has been shared on social media and by The Exposé is taken from a page providing information about using the NHS COVID pass. NHSX leads the ‘digital transformation’ of the NHS and social care in England. 

It says: “Currently, businesses and event organisers in England that choose to use the NHS COVID Pass as a condition of entry can decide whether or not to allow in people who self-declare that they are unable to be vaccinated or tested.

“Businesses can continue to accept people who self-declare that they are medically exempt until mid December 2021, from which point they have to use the NHS COVID Pass to gain entry in the same way that people who are fully vaccinated do. Your NHS COVID Pass will not show that you have a medical exemption.”

This means that currently businesses that decide to use the NHS COVID Pass can choose whether or not to allow people to self declare that they are medically exempt. 

From December, however, in England, people will need to have registered an exemption on the NHS COVID Pass to prove they are exempt. 

Although confusingly worded, this does not mean that vaccine passports themselves will be mandatory from December. 

What are the rules on vaccine passports?

Proof of vaccination is already required for certain jobs (for example care home staff in England), travel to some countries from the UK for tourism, or to alter the level of quarantine and testing required for travel. 

In addition, people over the age of 16 already have to prove their vaccination status for certain events involving large numbers of people such as night clubs (and other venues) in Wales, and over 18s in Scotland. In Wales, the NHS COVID Pass can be also be used to provide information about recent negative lateral flow test results to gain entry.

However, this is not currently the case in England and Northern Ireland. In England, the government has allowed voluntary use of the NHS COVID Pass by organisations involved in sporting and music events. The NHS COVID Pass certifies people based on vaccination, testing or natural immunity status. 

In Northern Ireland, there are currently still some social distancing measures and restrictions on large gatherings in place. The Northern Irish Department of Health has also introduced a Covid certificate for international travel, and Irish passport holders who live or were vaccinated in Northern Ireland can also access the EU Digital COVID Certificate.

Over the summer, there was discussion of government plans to make full vaccination a condition of entry to nightclubs and other venues where large crowds gather in England.  Eventually the government decided not to go ahead with this and mandatory vaccine-only certification was not implemented in England. 

The government has said, however, that vaccine passports or “mandatory vaccine-only COVID-status certification” could be introduced as part of a ‘Plan B’ scenario in England. 

‘Plan B’ is a series of measures that the government has set out that could be introduced if data on the Covid-19 situation changes and the NHS is likely to come under “unsustainable pressure”. The government has said that it would only take these actions “if the data suggests further measures are necessary”.

If Plan B is implemented the NHS COVID Pass will change to display full vaccination only. Exemptions will continue to apply for those who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons, for those on Covid-19 vaccine clinical trials and for under 18s, but this will be shown on the pass as somebody who is fully vaccinated rather than specifying that they are exempt.

We asked the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) whether the change mentioned on the NHSX website means that vaccine passports will definitely be introduced in mid-December. 

DHSC confirmed vaccine passports remain an option in the event of Plan B, and the update to the NHS COVID Pass in December will allow people to prove they have a medical exemption for not being vaccinated. 

This means that there will be a change to the NHS COVID Pass in December so that people can prove medical exemption via the app. Whether or not people will be required to use the NHS COVID Pass in December depends on whether or not the government decides that ‘Plan B’ is necessary, but this page from the NHSX website does not mean this is definitely going to happen.