Legal: No jab, no entry update
David Clifton and Suzanne Davies of Clifton Davies Consultancy Limited provide an update on last month’s ‘No jab, no entry’ guidance.
In our 'No jab, no entry' article last month, we explored the grounds on which a pub or bar might be able to turn away customers on the basis of a ‘no vaccine, no face mask, no entry, no service’ rule.
Things have moved on since then, as a result of which you can have your own say in the formulation of government policy in this respect.
That’s because on 15 March the Cabinet Office commenced a call for evidence – that is running until 11.45pm on 29 March – to inform the government’s review into whether Covid-status certification could play a role in reopening the UK economy, reducing restrictions on social contact and improving safety.
'Covid-status certification' means the use of testing or vaccination data to confirm in different settings that individuals have a lower risk of getting sick with or transmitting Covid-19 to others. The idea is that such certification would be made available both to vaccinated people and to unvaccinated people who have been tested.
The Cabinet Office wants to ensure that, in deciding what recommendations to make, it takes account of a broad range of interests and concerns in relation to (a) the ethical, equalities, privacy, legal and operational aspects of a potential certification scheme and (b) what limits, if any, should be placed on organisations using certification when determining, for example, to whom access to premises should be permitted or refused and the extent to which Covid-secure mitigations could potentially be relaxed.
You can access the call for evidence here and respond before the 29 March deadline by sending an email to certification.cfe@cabinetoffice.gov.uk. Pub and bar operators are being encouraged to provide short responses to the questions that are most relevant to you and your expertise.
