Venues in Bolton celebrate new vaccine passports U-turn

Nightclubs and venues across the borough have breathed a collective sigh of relief at Health Secretary Sajid Javid’s confirmation that that Government no longer intended to impose vaccine passports on nightclubs in England.

Mr Javid told BBC’s Andrew Marr the government: “won’t be going ahead with plans for vaccine passports,” with a formal announcement expected on Tuesday.

The vaccine passport scheme would have meant members of the public would have been required to show proof of double vaccination when entering clubs and crowded events.

John Wray, owner of the Venue Bar in Bolton, said: This is a positive move from the Government because it would have been very hard to manage Covid-19 passports.

“We suffered quite badly over the pandemic, between March 2020 and summer 2021 we only had 12 weeks of trade and this would have severely handicapped us.

“The night-time industry still needs continued support.”

Sacha Lord, night time economy advisor for Greater Manchester, and co-founder of the Parklife festival, said: “I’m pleased to see that the Government has listened to the events and nightlife industry and dropped the plans for vaccine passports.

“The plans were untenable and illogical and there were multiple factors which would have been discriminatory and legally questionable.

“As a sector, we can now move forward, without hesitation of vague regulations.

“We welcomed over 80,000 visitors to last weekend’s Parklife Festival. Having been forced to cancel the festival last year due to Covid, it is a momentous weekend and a hugely positive step as we try to rebuild the events industry in the UK.”

Mark Davyd, CEO of the Venue Trust, issued a statement: “The double vaccine certification programme proposed by the government contained a number of challenges around deliverability, practicability, equality and potential discrimination.

“MVT has been describing those problems to ministers and departments for the last two months, and we therefore welcome the decision to not move forward with this policy.”

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