THE government may have to introduce “vaccine passports” to stop a host of unregulated schemes cropping up in venues across the country, a Bournemouth MP has said.

The prime minister has ordered a review of the idea, which could see people given proof of their vaccination status that they could produce at venues such as pubs and theatres.

Bournemouth West Conor Burns said he was not enthusiastic about the idea but believed it could be necessary to prevent venues devising schemes that discriminated unfairly against people who could not have the vaccine.

“Businesses, quite understandably, will want to maximise the number of customers and people will want to come back and enjoy their offering,” he said.“Some people might be deterred from going to a pub or restaurant if there might be people there that they’re worried will pass on Covid to them.

“We either have a ‘Wild West’ form of multiple competing, unregistered forms of passport or the government steps in and creates a framework in which some form of proof of vaccination is delivered in a way that’s fair to everybody.”

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A report by the Royal Society has said Covid-19 vaccine passports could be “feasible” but only when it is clear how long immunity lasts. It also warned that such schemes could be unfair to the young, pregnant or those who could not be vaccinated for medical reasons.

The government would need to make sure it did not breach laws on human rights and equality, the society said.

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Mr Burns said: “The whole response to Covid has been predicated on predicting who are the most vulnerable to being hospitalised or, in the worst case, dying after contracting Covid. As a rough rule of thumb, the older someone is the more susceptible to the severe effects of Covid. And so far there’s been no resentment from most younger people about obeying the rules for the greater good.

“I wouldn’t want to see a position where we achieved the fantastic goal to get the most vulnerable and older people vaccinated, got the hospital and death rate down and opened up our economy, only to see those under 50 then told they can’t go out and enjoy that freedom because they’ve not had a vaccine that they’re currently not able to get.”

Boris Johnson has said there are “deep and complex issues” to be considered before vaccine passports are introduced.

Cabinet office minister Michael Gove is to lead the government’s review.

Such schemes have already been proposed as a way of enabling international travel to resume, with the government of Greece and the cruise operator Saga among those considering the idea.