Image by Jack Taylor
The U.K government’s proposal to enforce a vaccine passport policy at all nightlife venues will go ahead as planned. This means that it will be mandatory for patrons to be fully vaccinated in order to gain entry into nightclubs, live music venues and other potentially crowded nightlife spaces.
The plan was initially revealed in July, shortly after the full re-opening of the nightlife sector following multiple U-turns from the government. The vaccine passport policy will be implemented from the end of September. A spokesperson for prime minister Boris Johnson commented, “We set out broadly our intention to require vaccination for nightclubs and some other settings, we will be coming forward in the coming weeks with detail for that.”
The news has received backlash from workers in the nightlife industry. “The challenges are endless, and the sector will be hit extremely hard by this decision, embroiled in discrimination cases, staffing and supply chain shortages, tourism and so on,” said CEO of the The Night Time Industries Association (NTIA), Michael Kill. Kill has been vocal about the government’s mishandling of the industry in the past few months. He continued, “The government needs to listen to real operators who can give them real feedback on these challenges, these policy decisions will have a catastrophic impact on people’s livelihoods and careers.”
According to Dazed, the policy will be enforced by way of the NHS app, which allows users to generate passports proving their vaccination status after being fully vaccinated.
