We are crowdfunding to grow the greatest possible fight against domestic Covid passes - and now we're bringing the first human rights legal challenge in the UK against Covid passes.
JOIN THE CHALLENGE - WE NEED YOU!
Your donations will build the biggest possible campaign to fight domestic Covid passes.
With your support we're leading a national campaign, lobbying parliaments, making the case all over the media and bringing legal action with an expert team of human rights lawyers. We won’t rest until Covid passes are scrapped for good.
Help us make history - join the fight today.
We understand businesses have had a tough time, but fairness, rights and equality are more important than safety theatre. Covid passes make no one safer, but seriously harm rights and equality and are turning us into an exclusionary papers-carrying society. When businesses and events are open, they must be open safely and fairly for everyone.
It's critical: if you oppose Covid passes #BOYCOTTCOVIDPASSES.
To date, 11 rights groups, 16 peers and 83 MPs (44 Conservative, 25 Labour, 12 Lib Dems, 1 Green, 1 Ind) have joined the cross-party campaign to oppose Covid-status certificates. MPs and peers from Labour, the Liberal Democrats and Conservative parties have signed a pledge: "We oppose the divisive and discriminatory use of COVID status certification to deny individuals access to general services, businesses or jobs."
Covid passes have been pushed through parliaments across the UK, but we will keep the pressure up on all politicians to scrap them at the earliest opportunity.
If you are a parliamentarian or organisation and you wish to join the list please email info@bigbrotherwatch.org.uk
Name | Party |
---|---|
Diane Abbott MP | Labour |
Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP | Labour |
Tahir Ali MP | Labour |
Rebecca Long Bailey MP | Labour |
Clive Lewis MP | Labour |
Beth Winter MP | Labour |
Rachel Hopkins MP | Labour |
Apsana Begum MP | Labour |
Richard Burgon MP | Labour |
Ian Byrne MP | Labour |
Dawn Butler MP | Labour |
Mary Kelly Foy MP | Labour |
Ian Lavery MP | Labour |
Ian Mearns MP | Labour |
John McDonnell MP | Labour |
Grahame Morris MP | Labour |
Kate Osborne MP | Labour |
Zarah Sultana MP | Labour |
Claudia Webbe MP | Labour |
Mick Whitley MP | Labour |
Nadia Whittome MP | Labour |
Baroness Chakrabarti | Labour |
Baroness Bryan of Partick | Labour |
Lord Woodley | Labour |
Lord Sikka | Labour |
Lord Hendy | Labour |
Emma Lewell-Buck MP | Labour |
Kim Johnson MP | Labour |
Baroness Christine Blower | Labour |
Paula Barker MP | Labour |
Andrew Gwynne MP | Labour |
Jeremy Corbyn MP | |
Ed Davey MP | Liberal Democrats |
Layla Moran MP | Liberal Democrats |
Munira Wilson MP | Liberal Democrats |
Alistair Carmichael MP | Liberal Democrats |
Daisy Cooper MP | Liberal Democrats |
Wendy Chamberlain MP | Liberal Democrats |
Sarah Olney MP | Liberal Democrats |
Christine Jardine MP | Liberal Democrats |
Jamie Stone MP | Liberal Democrats |
Tim Farron MP | Liberal Democrats |
Wera Hobhouse MP | Liberal Democrats |
Sarah Green MP | Liberal Democrats |
Lord Scriven | Liberal Democrats |
Lord Strasburger | Liberal Democrats |
Lord Tyler | Liberal Democrats |
Lord Clement-Jones | Liberal Democrats |
Baroness Sarah Ludford | Liberal Democrats |
Baroness Brinton | Liberal Democrats |
Mark Harper MP | Conservative Party |
Steve Baker MP | Conservative Party |
Sir Iain Duncan Smith MP | Conservative Party |
Harriett Baldwin MP | Conservative Party |
Esther McVey MP | Conservative Party |
Adam Afriyie MP | Conservative Party |
Bob Blackman MP | Conservative Party |
Sir Graham Brady MP | Conservative Party |
Nus Ghani MP | Conservative Party |
Andrew Mitchell MP | Conservative Party |
Peter Bone MP | Conservative Party |
Ben Bradley MP | Conservative Party |
Andrew Bridgen MP | Conservative Party |
Paul Bristow MP | Conservative Party |
Philip Davies MP | Conservative Party |
Richard Drax MP | Conservative Party |
Jonathan Djanogly MP | Conservative Party |
Chris Green MP | Conservative Party |
Philip Hollobone MP | Conservative Party |
Adam Holloway MP | Conservative Party |
David Jones MP | Conservative Party |
Simon Jupp MP | Conservative Party |
Andrew Lewer MBE MP | Conservative Party |
Julian Lewis MP | Conservative Party |
Karl McCartney MP | Conservative Party |
Craig Mackinlay MP | Conservative Party |
Anthony Mangnall MP | Conservative Party |
Stephen McPartland MP | Conservative Party |
Anne Marie Morris MP | Conservative Party |
Sir John Redwood MP | Conservative Party |
Andrew Rosindell MP | Conservative Party |
Greg Smith MP | Conservative Party |
Henry Smith MP | Conservative Party |
Julian Sturdy MP | Conservative Party |
Sir Desmond Swayne MP | Conservative Party |
Sir Robert Syms MP | Conservative Party |
Craig Tracey MP | Conservative Party |
Jamie Wallis MP | Conservative Party |
David Warburton MP | Conservative Party |
William Wragg MP | Conservative Party |
Sir Charles Walker MP | Conservative Party |
David Davis MP | Conservative Party |
Simon Fell MP | Conservative Party |
Lord Moylan | Conservative Party |
Baroness Helena Morrissey | Conservative Party |
Pauline Latham OBE MP | Conservative Party |
Caroline Lucas MP | Green Party |
Baroness Jenny Jones | Green Party |
The Lord Bishop of St Albans (Rt Revd Dr Alan Smith) | |
Big Brother Watch | |
Liberty | |
Migrants Organise | |
Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants | |
medConfidential | |
Privacy International | |
Pregnant Then Screwed | |
Manifesto Club | |
The Runnymede Trust | |
Open Rights Group | |
Medact |
In April 2021, the then Conservative government opened a review into the introduction of Covid-status certification. In response we launched a report detailing the case against making Britain a two-tier society.The government’s review concluded that introducing Covid passes would be “disproportionate”.
An NHS Covid pass is used to gain entry to certain events and venues in England – Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own apps. It is part of the NHS app and displays a QR code that can be scanned by a venue to allow entry. Two doses of an MHRA approved vaccination, a recent lateral flow or PCR test or an NHS approved medical exemption provides access. A paper version can be printed and used as an alternative.
Many people find Covid pass schemes even more onerous and obstructive if they do not have a smart phone. This disproportionately affects older people and people on lower incomes. In theory, people without a smart phone can apply for a paper certificate, which they then have to carry, and which has a time-limited QR code. The process for obtaining a physical certificate varies across the four nations.
No, a covid pass is nothing like a driving license. A driving license provides evidence of a qualification. We do not need a qualification merely in order to live.
No, covid passes are nothing like a yellow card. Unlike yellow fever certificates, the Covid Status Certificate is a population-wide, digital pass for access to domestic businesses, services and events.
Evidence of a yellow fever vaccination is typically a paper document provided for entry to select countries where the local risk of yellow fever – which has a far higher fatality rate than covid-19 – is high.
The WHO advises against requirements of proof of Covid-19 vaccination for international travel as a condition of departure or entry, given that there are “critical unknowns” regarding the efficacy of vaccination in reducing transmission. The WHO states:
“A number of scientific unknowns remain concerning the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines: efficacy in preventing disease and limiting transmission, including for variants of SARS-CoV-2; duration of protection offered by vaccination; timing of booster doses; whether vaccination offers protection against asymptomatic infection; age and population groups that should be prioritized for vaccination, specific contraindications, how long before travel vaccines should be offered; and possible exemption of people who have antibodies against SARS-CoV-2.”
Vaccination entry requirements have never been imposed as blanket rules internationally – they should be specific, limited and proportionate to the local context and risks associated with individual countries.
You can read all the reasons above on why vaccine passports, even with exemptions, are unnecessary, divisive, discriminatory and wrong.
It’s important to consider that even a covid pass showing an individual is medically exempt would incur a serious privacy intrusion, leading others to deduce that the exempt individual must have health problems or is pregnant. This is not only an invasion of privacy, but could lead to disadvantageous treatment – particularly in an employment context.
Businesses can broadly decide who they do and do not serve. However, if businesses deny services based on vaccine passes, they may be at risk of unlawfully discriminating against people on the basis of protected characteristics (see our section above on discrimination). The government has a duty to protect people from discrimination too – so if public authorities support checkpoint systems that lead to unlawful discrimination, the Government could be breaching its legal duties too.
No. Austria has entered into a full lockdown despite its policy of mandatory vaccine passports. Previously, the Austrian government used vaccine passports to impose a lockdown just for the unvaccinated. There is no example, anywhere in the world, where the use of vaccine passports has significantly reduced or eliminated transmission of Covid.
We need serious public health policies, not a reductive ultimatum between life under house arrest or living on tag. Vaccine passports are not a silver bullet solution – in fact, there’s no evidence they are any kind of solution at all. To protect public health and avoid future lockdowns we need free and fair access to vaccines and healthcare, adequate support for infectious people to quarantine, a highly effective test and trace system, and proportionate public safety measures.
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We are crowdfunding to grow the greatest possible fight against domestic COVID passes - and are starting the first human rights legal challenge to COVID passes in the UK.
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We’re building a fight against vaccine passports - the best way to support it is to join us with a monthly donation. Big or small, every little helps to keep our vital work going..