Mandatory vaccines revoked

Mandatory vaccines revoked

On 31 January 2022, the government announced that it intended to revoke the regulations that would require all those working in health and social care settings to be vaccinated against covid-19 from 1 April 2022. A consultation into revoking those regulations was launched and on 1 March 2022, the government published its response.

Of the 90,020 responses to the question of whether the regulations should be revoked, a staggering 90% voted in favour of revocation. This is compared to only 9% who felt that the requirement to be vaccinated should not be revoked.

In its response, the government confirmed three key factors that led them to bring forward the revocation of the regulations to 15 March:

1. The Omicron variant, relative to Delta, is less severe
2. A full primary course of vaccination does not provide long term public health protection against the spread of covid-19
3. The public are overwhelmingly opposed to regulations requiring vaccination

What this means for employers

If you operate in the health and social care sector and have been pressing employees to get vaccinated and provide evidence – those practices should cease with immediate effect.

This will come as a welcome relief to many employers and individuals alike. For others it may create nervousness around how to best protect patients and colleagues. As in all settings, appropriate risk assessments and covid-secure measures should be habits that are well ingrained by now.