Plans for vaccine passports ‘ought to be scrutinised by Parliament’
THE GOVERNMENT should be prepared to subject any plans it has for vaccine passports to full parliamentary scrutiny, former Cabinet Minister David Davis said.
The MP for Haltemprice and Howden suggested introducing Covid status certificates could be discriminatory against communities reluctant to take up the vaccine.
The Government is consulting on whether to introduce a certification system which could also include details on Covid-19 test results.
Ministers are reviewing whether certificates could play a role in reopening the economy by reducing restrictions on social contact and improving safety.
Mr Davis told MPs: “The impact of this would be discriminatory. Under the law, it would
be indirectly discriminatory and that is illegal.
“You may well find, it has been said, that black and ethnic minority communities are less inclined to get vaccinated, well that would be indirect discrimination.”
Younger people were also less likely to have the jab and “some people have ethical or religious objections”, he told the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee.
“There are a variety of good reasons for people not to take a vaccine. I’ve had a vaccine and I think most of the reasons are not ones I would subscribe to.
“But people have that freedom. What this proposal does is, in effect, coerce those people.”
He said that if the Government decided to introduce the certificates it should be prepared to table a new law which would go through the full scrutiny process of both Houses of Parliament, rather than as a piece of secondary legislation.
“If we do this it should be primary legislation because it is so serious,” he said.
The former Minister suggested that the move was being pushed by officials in Whitehall who had long backed some form of identity documentation.