Evidence paper on extension of vaccine certification

John Swinney

The paper reports on the operation of the current certification scheme, reviews the approaches adopted by other countries and examines the evidence behind expanding the scheme. It considers Covid transmission, public attitudes and the impact on the business community.

Deputy First Minister John Swinney said: “With cases rising gradually and pressures on our NHS, our approach is to keep people safe and get through a challenging winter without having to re-introduce any restrictions.

“This paper provides an update of the evidence of the vaccine certification scheme and focuses on the potential impact of a range of options for expanding it. Our vaccine certification scheme is working well, with venues and events affected continuing to operate and more than 1.5 million downloads of the NHS Covid status app so far.

“We want businesses to remain open throughout the Christmas period so it is sensible to consider options available to expand Covid certification. We will continue to consult with hospitality industry representatives and will set out our proposed approach next week.”