Launched on the 10th of February, the consultation will close at 11.45pm on February 16th.
Health and Social Care Secretary, Sajid Javid, announced earlier this month that mandatory vaccine regulations will be revoked based on responses from the consultation and parliamentary approval.
Explaining the move at the time, he said that while vaccination remains the best line of defence against COVID-19, it is “no longer proportionate” to require vaccination as a condition of deployment through statute.
Javid told MPs that the decision to re-examine the policy is based on two factors.
“The first is that our population as a whole is now better protected against hospitalisation from COVID-19. Omicron’s increased infectiousness meant that – at the peak of the recent winter spike – one in 15 people had a COVID-19 infection, according to the ONS,” he said.
“The second factor is that the dominant variant – Omicron – is intrinsically less severe. When taken together with the first factor, the evidence shows that the risk of presentation to emergency care or hospital admission with Omicron is approximately half of that for Delta.
“Given these dramatic changes, it is not only right but responsible to revisit the balance of risks and opportunities that guided our original decision last year.”
If you want to make a difference in the consultation, get involved with this survey (which closes February 16th)
