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2 March, 2022 Open access

Removal of requirement for health and care staff working in regulated care settings to have received a complete course of Covid-19 vaccinations

New statutory instrument

New regulations have been issued in relation to the requirement for health and care staff working in regulated care settings to have received a complete course of Covid-19 vaccinations.

Coming into force on 15 March 2022, the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) (Amendment) (Coronavirus) (No. 3) Regulations 2022 (SI.No.206/2022) amend the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 (the 2014 Regulations) to remove provisions which were inserted into those Regulations for the purposes of preventing, detecting and controlling the spread of infections, specifically in response to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

In particular, the regulations revoke provisions that were due to come into force from 1 April 2022 under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) (Amendment) (Coronavirus) (No. 2) Regulations 2022 (SI.No.15/2022) that require those registered for the regulated activity of providing accommodation for people who require nursing or personal care carried on in a care home to ensure that staff are only employed or otherwise engaged if, subject to certain conditions, they have been vaccinated with a complete course of doses of an authorised vaccine.

NB - the regulations also revoke provisions inserted into the 2014 Regulations by the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) (Amendment) (Coronavirus) Regulations 2021 (SI.No.891/2021) that effectively required a registered person to prohibit visitors and other non-residents from entering a care home premises unless they are vaccinated against coronavirus, or otherwise exempt from the requirements.

The explanatory memorandum to the regulations advises that -

'Vaccination remains the very best line of defence against Covid-19 and all people working in health and social care settings have a professional duty to be vaccinated. However, in light of the latest clinical evidence and the views received in response to the consultation, the view of the government is that it is no longer proportionate to require vaccination as a condition of deployment through statute in health, care homes or other social care settings.'

Announcing the change in policy yesterday in a written statement in the House of Commons, Health Secretary Sajid Javid said -

'On 9 February government published a consultation document (Revoking vaccination as a condition of deployment across all health and social care)...

The consultation received over 90,000 responses ... The vast majority of the feedback received supported revocation, with 90 per cent of respondents agreeing that the requirement for Covid-19 vaccination as a condition of deployment in health and social care settings should be revoked.

I have concluded that it is right and proportionate to proceed with revocation of Covid-19 vaccination as a condition of deployment in all health and social care settings, and have today published the government’s full response to the consultation on gov.uk.'

SI.No.206/2022 is available from legislation.gov.uk