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UK Government Confirms Vaccine Passport Plan Will Go Ahead
Christian Eede , September 1st, 2021 18:10

Guidance will be issued to venue operators in due course, according to Boris Johnson's spokesperson

The UK government has this week confirmed that it will go ahead with plans to introduce vaccine passports as a requirement for entry to clubs and other spaces in England from October 1.

Following speculation that the government may U-turn on the idea, or that it was simply being trailed to encourage young people to get vaccinated, Boris Johnson's spokesperson said that plans are still in place for the measure to be put in place next month.

"We set out broadly our intention to require vaccination for nightclubs and some other settings," Johnson's spokesperson said this week. "We will be coming forward in the coming weeks with detail for that."

Plans to introduce vaccine passports as a requirement for entry to clubs in England were originally announced in July. The UK government said that it would wait until the start of October to introduce such a measure in order to allow for all over-18s to get fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

In the meantime, nightclubs and other venues have been given free rein to introduce and enforce their own measures for testing or vaccination as a requirement for entry to events. Many venue operators are still unaware as to how the vaccine passport requirement will be enforced, though it's believed that people will be able to prove their vaccination status via the NHS smartphone app.