Now hotels and pubs are dragged into passport plan
THOUSANDS of pubs, hotels and other venues will be forced to check vaccine passports after Nicola Sturgeon extended the controversial scheme.
The move has sparked fears it could now affect hotels holding events such as weddings and Christmas festivities.
The First Minister said anyone attending a venue open between midnight and 5am which sells alcohol after midnight, has a dancefloor and plays live or recorded music must prove they have had two doses of a vaccine.
It is a significant expansion of the scheme, which was initially to affect ‘nightclubs and analogous venues’.
Other elements of the scheme were watered down following a backlash, with football clubs required only to introduce spot checks rather than blanket inspections.
Venues will also be allowed to carry out ‘visual checks’ if they do not have technology to scan QR codes.
Miss Sturgeon set out the plan to MSPs but details of the scheme, due to come into force on Friday next week, will be published this week.
Calling on SNP ministers to rethink the plan, Dr Liz Cameron, chief executive of the Scottish Chambers of Commerce, said: ‘The criteria now set out by the Scottish Government will extend to many of our hotels, pubs, major sporting events and other hospitality and tourism businesses.
‘Thousands of these businesses will now be caught up in vaccine certification rules, with little time left to understand, plan and implement them before the deadline of October 1.’
Hospitality leaders warned that firms could be put out of business.
Gavin Stevenson, of the Scottish Licensed Trade Association, said 2,000 venues could be affected.
He added: ‘The definition is unclear, will lead to confusion, encompasses many pubs and bars and risks the viability of businesses.’
The Scottish Government had said previously the rules would apply to nightclubs and similar venues, live indoor unseated events of more than 500 people, live outdoor unseated events of more than 4,000 people, and any event of more than 10,000 people.
Miss Sturgeon said: ‘Venues will be required to take “all reasonable measures” to implement the scheme – that boils down to using common sense.’
Businesses can use an NHS Covid Status App to scan QR codes on vaccine certificates or ‘visually check’ QR codes.
‘Relatively small’ events must check everyone’s vaccine certificate, but venues catering for thousands need do only ‘a reasonable number of checks’.
Scottish Conservative economy spokesman Liz Smith said: ‘This is the latest instalment in what has been a saga of incompetence from the start.’
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: ‘Unless your bouncer is Robocop, how can venues guard against fraud through visual checking?’
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar condemned the failure to allow people to prove they have had a negative Covid test to gain entry.
‘The definition is unclear’