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No plans for vaccine passports in Wales, says First Minister

The Welsh Government has “no plans” to introduce mandatory vaccination certificates for venues, First Minister Mark Drakeford has said.

At a press conference on Friday to announce Wales will move to alert Level 0 from Saturday, Mr Drakeford said he will continue to “weigh up” whether so-called vaccine passports are necessary.

Speaking from the Senedd in Cardiff, he said: “There’s a distinction between places you have to visit – and I would not have vaccine passports for these places – and places we attend voluntarily.

“There are also ethical considerations and there are equity considerations.

“You need to think about people who can’t be vaccinated, not simply people who don’t choose to be vaccinated.

“You have to think about whether the very considerable apparatus that would have to be in place there to make sure that those vaccines certificates could be produced, that they couldn’t be fraudulently produced, that they could be properly policed in those venues.

“You’d have to weigh all those things up before deciding whether or not this was a measure that had more advantages to it than disadvantages.”

Vaccine certificates for anyone who has had both doses are available to anyone in the UK, including Wales, through the NHS app or website.

A person registering that they are double-jabbed can produce a domestic or travel “pass”.

Mark Drakeford
First Minister Mark Drakeford said Covid passports are not required in Wales at the current time (PA)

However, neither are compulsory for entry into venues in Wales.

In England, ministers plan to make it law in “higher risk” settings for visitors to have to produce the NHS Covid Pass. This is expected to be brought in by the end of September – when all 18-year-olds will have had the chance to be fully vaccinated.

“We’re definitely not at that point here in Wales and we won’t be, I think, for a number of weeks yet. But we will weigh it up,” Mr Drakeford added.

“If we thought it was a practical and proportionate way of protecting people in Wales from coronavirus, then the case would probably be made for it, but it’s quite a high threshold to get to, even in those voluntary settings.”