Last night, following a debate that evidenced the strong arguments on both sides of the mandatory vaccination argument, the House of Lords approved the draft Regulations making it mandatory for anyone entering a registered care home in England to have been double vaccinated unless they are clinically exempt, subject to a shortlist of exemptions. 

The Motion was amended to incorporate a motion of regret which provides:

"This House regrets that the Regulations do not include any information about how the legislation will operate and that this will be left to guidance that will not be available until the end of July; further regrets that a full impact assessment has not been published including analysis of the number of current staff who may not comply and the potential impact on care homes if care home staff become ineligible for work because they are not fully vaccinated or medically exempt; notes that the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee recommended that the debate on the instrument should be deferred until the operational guidance and full impact assessment has been published; and calls on Her Majesty’s Government to provide stronger supporting evidence for permanently requiring staff to have received both doses of the vaccine or, if they have not, to be banned from entering their workplace"

The final stage required for the Regulations to become law is for the Regulations to be "made" which will happen when they are signed by the Minister, we expect this later this week. For further detail on the employment implications, see my blog and for the wider implications my colleague Emma Watt's blog.