Health Secretary Matt Hancock has confirmed that vaccine passports are the “right way to have safe global travel” and has confirmed discussions are underway to look at how they could work to facilitate the resumption of international travel.
His college, Foreign Secretary Dominic Rabb also confirmed that talks are underway into how the UK could implement a vaccine passport.
This news comes in stark contrast to last weeks statement from Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi who said the UK Government had no plans to introduce vaccine passports and called the idea of them ‘discriminatory’.
Mr Hancock said that the UK Government is working with countries around the world on ‘how that vaccine certification can happen in a way that can be assured’.
Speaking on Sky News, Mr Hancock said: “There are some countries around the world considering bringing in rules saying you can only travel if you’ve been vaccinated. These aren’t in place yet but there are countries that are actively floating this idea and proposing it. And it that case it would be important for people from the UK to be able to show whether or not they’ve been vaccinated in order to travel.
“We want Brits to be able to travel to those countries and therefore be able to demonstrate their vaccine status
“And so that vaccine certification is something we are talking to our international counterparts about and there are people who are arguing that is the right way to have safe global travel again because that’s very restricted at the moment and that’s obviously a very important piece of work.”
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, said that vaccine passports were being discussed but that a “workable system” would need to be in place
Mr Raab said: “We discuss these things but the reality is you need to have a workable system… that countries around the world can rely on.
“Whether it’s at an international, domestic or local level, you’ve got to know that the document being presented is something that you can rely on and that it’s an accurate reflection of the status of the individual.
“I’m not sure there’s a foolproof answer in the way that it’s sometimes presented but of course we’ll look at all the options.”
