No plans to bring vaccine passports for university students England, the Department of Education has said, as a line on their use continues.
Ministers interviewed this week – including the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab – did not rule out using them, with students scheduled to return to campuses in September.
Raab said students would receive “advance warnings”. if they were necessary, but the Department of Education (DFE) said on Saturday that it was not planning to have proof of vaccine status to be required to attend lectures or be in the halls of residence.
A DFE spokesperson said: “Vaccinations are important to help keep higher education settings safe when students return for the autumn term and we strongly encourage all students to be offered both doses of the vaccine. We do.
“The Government currently has no plans to require the use of NHS COVID Passes for learning up to universities and FE” [further education] Colleges are encouraged to promote vaccine offerings and should continue to conduct risk assessments for their particular circumstances.”
The first dose of the vaccine is currently offered to all people over the age of 18 in the UK, and those who are within three months of turning 18 can now also get a jab.
The government plans to offer both jobs to all adults by the end of September. From that date, ministers have said that people will be required to prove their full immunization status when attending nightclubs and other crowded events and places in England.
The Liberal Democrat leader, Sir Ed Davey, has said it would be “impractical” to use a domestic vaccine passport.
He called for Parliament to be recalled from its summer break after changes were made to the NHS COVID-19 app, meaning it could be used to prove the vaccine status of people in England.
He told Times Radio on Saturday: “We all agree that for international travel you’ll need a COVID option, but domestically, like the COVID ID card, the Liberal Democrats have led the campaign against them, we’ve got MPs have seen. Other parties share our view that this would be a real attack on people’s liberties and would particularly affect businesses and youth – it is impractical, it is costly and it is divisive.
“That is why the government did not move forward before this. Now we hear, when Parliament can’t debate this, they have secretly changed the rules so that your NHS app can be used as a COVID ID card everywhere. “
In Scotland, the current paper editions are to be replaced by a digital covid certificate for traveling abroad.
Damien Collins, the former chairman of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport selection committee, said people who had not been vaccinated could not expect the same treatment as those who did not.
“We don’t force anyone in this country to get vaccinated, it’s up to their personal preference,” he told Times Radio. “But at the same time, it may be unfair for someone who has decided not to be vaccinated expect to be treated in the same way as someone who has been vaccinated twice.”
While the number of cases across the UK continues to decline, concerns about this continue.pingdemic”, where thousands are forced to self-isolate after being asked to do so by the NHS Covid-19 app or NHS test-and-trace, causing widespread disruption.
Ministers said last week that the app needs to be “tweaked” To cut down on the number of people quarantining at home.
Prof Robert West, a government health adviser, said on BBC Radio 4’s Today program on Saturday morning that people could be avoided getting tested so that they do not have to self-isolate after a positive result.
He said this could explain the gap between the falling cases and an Office for National Statistics (ONS) study that said one in 65 people in private homes in England had the virus in the weeks leading up to July 24.
“One of the concerns is that people are not coming forward as they used to for testing,” he said. “One of the reasons for this may be that a kind of message from the government has given people a little green light to say, ‘Okay, it’s not so bad if you get the infection.’
“[But] If you get tested, you’ll have to self-isolate at least for the moment, and that’s going to be very disruptive. I suspect that may be a factor.”