UK Secretary Sajid Javid has called on the British Parliament to revoke regulations mandating COVID-19 vaccines for National Health Service staff and social care workers in England.
Speaking in the House of Commons on Tuesday, 1 Feb., Javid said, “It is not only right but responsible to revisit the balance of risks and responsibilities that guided our decisions last year.
“While vaccinations remain our very best line of defence against COVID-19, I believe that it is no longer proportionate to require vaccination as a condition of deployment through statute.”
Under the current regulations, all front-line NHS workers in England were required to be fully vaccinated by 1 April, meaning they would need a first dose by Thursday, 3 Feb.
According to Javid, 127,000 NHS staff and 22,000 social care workers had been vaccinated since September when the UK government launched a consultation into mandatory vaccines for health workers.
NHS workers took to the streets last month to demonstrate against the mandatory vaccination law.
“I am announcing that we will launch a consultation on ending vaccination as a condition of deployment in health and all social care settings,” Javid said told the House of Commons. “Subject to the responses and the will of this House, the government will revoke the regulations.”
Despite his calls for the repeal of the legislation, Javid said the introduction of the mandatory vaccines was the “right policy at the time, supported by the clinical evidence and the government makes no apologies for it”.
If the mandatory vaccination regulation is repealed, it will be the latest of several steps by the UK Parliament to relax its COVID-19 restrictions.
in October, the Cayman Islands Parliament passed two bills that mandated vaccines for non-Caymanians.
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