This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Business News Legal Live Business
COVID Passport requirement for clubs and venues in England to be axed next week
By Chris Cooke | Published on Thursday 20 January 2022
UK Prime Minister ‘Boris’ Johnson yesterday announced an end to the so called Plan B COVID measures in England, one of which was the requirement for clubs and venues to check COVID passports at the door.
The most recent set of COVID-19 regulations in England are being relaxed partly because the number of new coronavirus infections has been declining for two weeks now. And partly because no one wants COVID rules interfering with all the parties that will take place on that glorious day when enough Tory MPs stab Johnson in the back to make the inevitable resignation a reality, forcing the PM to fuck off back to whatever mountain of bullshit he slithered out from at the beginning of the bad times.
As well as removing the obligation on clubs and some other venues to check the vaccination or COVID status of customers from next week, the mandatory wearing of face masks in public spaces will also be axed, because Lord knows the knife wielding Tory MPs Johnson is desperately trying to keep away from his back really hate wearing face masks.
“Because of the extraordinary [vaccine] booster campaign, together with the way the public have responded to the Plan B measures, we can return to Plan A in England and allow Plan B regulations to expire as a result from the start of Thursday next week”, Johnson told Parliament yesterday. Yeah, whatever you say.
Official guidance for people to work from home where possible has also been lifted – with that particular rule change happening with immediate effect.
The removal of the COVID Passport requirement for clubs and venues was welcomed by the Night Time Industries Association, which has argued that that requirement has negatively impacted on night-time businesses, both in terms of logistical costs and lost business.
NTIA CEO Michael Kill said yesterday: “We welcome the removal of the restrictions for the night time economy and hospitality sector. Following an extremely difficult two years for the sector, which has been, in every sense, at the sharpest end of the pandemic throughout, we are finally able to plan for the future with some level of certainty and without debilitating restrictions”.
Although the latest relaxation of COVID rules was welcomed, Kill stressed that the night time and live entertainment sectors will still need further support from the government. “With the devastating losses over the festive period, and the effects of limited cash flow being felt across the sector, our industry has been placed in an extremely fragile state”, he added, “and without question will need further financial relief and support to survive”.
Kill concluded: “Experts believe it will take several years for the hospitality and night time economy sectors to recover, [so] it is important that the government don’t simply assume the sector will be fine because restrictions have been eased. More support will be needed”.
COVID rules in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are unaffected by Johnson’s announcement, although the executives in each of those countries also continue to review what regulations are required.
