Clubbers and people attending some other venues in England will have to be fully vaccinated by the end of September, the government has confirmed.

‘Vaccine passports’ will be introduced to slow the spread of Covid-19 in the most dangerous of settings.

Prime minister, Boris Johnson, unveiled the plans earlier and said the idea was “to make full vaccination the condition of entry to nightclubs and other venues where large crowds gather”.

The plan will be delayed for a further ten weeks.

By this point, all 18-year-olds in England will have had the chance to be fully vaccinated.

Johnson said around a third of 18–30-year-olds were currently completely unvaccinated.

Commenting on the announcement, UKHospitality chief executive, Kate Nicholls, said: “This announcement comes as a hammer blow on a day when nightclubs, a sector that has been closed by the government for 16 months, were finally given hope that they could start to trade viably and make progress toward rebuilding and paying off accrued debts.

“Covid-19 passports will be a costly burden that run the risk of creating flashpoints between staff and customers, as well as raising potential issues with equalities legislation and the handling of customer data.

“As recently as last week the government asked us to work with them on a voluntary scheme, so this new policy is devastating and risks hitting these fragile businesses and derailing their recovery and costing thousands of jobs.”

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