You could need a vaccine passport to get into pubs and clubs

People may need to have a vaccine passport to get into pubs, bars and clubs when they open.

Yesterday the Prime Minister said it may be up to the landlords to decide for their individual pubs. He said: “That’s the kind of thing that may be up to individual publicans.”

Government sources have also said this is part of a review on vaccine passports.

Jonathan Neame, the chief executive of the Shepherd Neame pub chain who own over 300 pubs around the UK, said they would not be insisting on the measure.

He said: “The whole essence of a pub is that they are diverse and inclusive environments, where everybody, and families in particular, are extremely welcome.”

He stressed it was perfectly acceptable to bar customers for bad behaviour or drunkenness but not for things they may not have done.

He said: “It’s absolutely fine to exclude people where there is a situation of bad behaviour or drunkenness, and that’s already enshrined in law, but if you’re going to exclude people for what they are, or what they have not done, that’s a wholly different issue which does touch on discrimination, civil liberties, and in this case data protection issues.”

But it’s not just pubs it could affect, the passport scheme could be used in clubs as well. The owner of the Deltic Group, Peter Marks, who runs clubs such as Pryzm and Atik said the passports could work.

Marks said he thinks young people would “probably accept” the idea as they are already used to carrying other forms of ID.

He said: “But for us, our demographic would probably accept it. It’s a young customer base for us. They already walk around with ID such as driving licence and passports to get into a lot of our venues, and I don’t think they’d have a problem with it.”

The government are also currently reviewing social distancing measures and there is a suggestion that if pubs check for their customer’s COVID status before entry, social distancing could be dropped in the venue.

According to The Guardian the government are considering allowing this check to include a negative test or proof of vaccine.

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