Government considering mandatory vaccines for care home workers, says Hancock

Requirement would mirror approach already in place for doctors, who must have hepatitis B jab

Care home workers could be required by law to have a coronavirus vaccine under plans being considered by the government, Matt Hancock has said.

The health secretary said legislation would need to be put forward in order to protect vulnerable residents but that there was already a precedent for such a move.

“There is a duty of care that people have if you work in an elderly care home, after all, residents of elderly care homes are the most vulnerable of all to Covid,” he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

“There are important moral questions on both sides, there would be a change in the law required, so this is something that we are considering but we haven’t made a final decision on and we do want to hear from care homes and indeed care home staff on this question.”

Mr Hancock added: “That sort of approach is already in place for doctors, they have to have the hepatitis B vaccine, and so there is already a clear precedent.”

Read more:

• Coronavirus: Up to one fifth of staff in some care home groups refusing vaccine
• Care home staff could require proof of vaccination to stay in their jobs, Matt Hancock says

He was speaking after reports in The Daily Telegraph suggested the move was being examined as part of a review of the so-called “Covid status certificates", which Mr Johnson had originally rejected as "discriminatory".

Mr Hancock said last month that some care home owners were pressing the government to act because of the low uptake of vaccines among staff.

He added that "whether you go the step further and say you can’t work in those settings without being vaccinated – that is an important question”.

The Telegraph reported that the Cabinet paper discusses both primary and secondary legislation but has not gone as far as drafting full legal wording.

One line was said to read: "The prime minister and the secretary of state have discussed on several occasions the progress that is being made to vaccinate social care workers against Covid-19 and have agreed, in order to reach a position of much greater safety for care recipients, to put in place legislation to require vaccinations among the workforce."

A government spokesperson said that "no final decisions have been made", adding: "The review into Covid status certification is considering a range of issues."

If approved, it would be the first law requiring vaccination since the 19th Century, when the government enforced compulsory smallpox vaccination for newborn babies.

David Shepherd, an expert in employment vaccination policies, told the Telegraph that all law requiring compulsory vaccination was phased out by 1948.

Additional reporting by PA