Senator Le Fondré was questioned on the matter during yesterday’s States sitting, with Deputy Louise Doublet asking about the potential timing of bringing in vaccine passports, also referred to as Covid safety certificates.
The Chief Minister said the possibility of a scheme had been discussed by ministers as part of the Island’s safer travel policy, but that no decision had been reached.
‘This is an evolving area that’s fraught with a whole range of ethical issues,’ he said.
Asked by Deputy Doublet whether the issue would come back to the Assembly for debate and approval, Senator Le Fondré said this depended on the type of scheme.
‘If vaccination passports were to become mandatory, then absolutely [this would come to the Assembly],’ he said. However he said that the scheme might be
voluntary, and that in this case, if it was opposed
by Members, this could create a ‘somewhat difficult position’ in the event of airlines deciding that they would recognise vaccination passports.
A petition against vaccination passports, describing them as ‘discriminatory’, was lodged on the Government of Jersey’s website last week and, by yesterday afternoon, had received more than 1,900 signatures.
Economic Development Minister Lyndon Farnham has been one of the ministers advocating the introduction of certificates as part of encouraging Britons to consider Jersey as a safe and accessible travel destination that fell within the Common Travel Area, rather than being classed as an ‘overseas’ destination.
During this week’s sitting of the Assembly, States Members are expected to debate plans from a Scrutiny panel to lower the threshold at which an area would be classed as ‘green’ under the risk-rating system for arriving passengers.
The so-called traffic-light system is due to be reintroduced, for arrivals from the UK and Crown Dependencies, from Monday as part of Jersey’s reconnection roadmap.
The Safe Travel Guidelines Review Panel has advocated reducing the upper limit for green areas by half from 50 to 25 cases per 100,000 people over the past 14 days.
Senator Farnham said he was concerned about the proposition, which he said had come out of the blue and would lead to a ‘completely unacceptable’ situation.
Although the proposition cites concerns expressed by members of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Cell in September last year, Senator Farnham said Jersey was in ‘a completely different’ place now as a result of the speed of the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccination programme.
Travel operators needed passengers to have confidence in Jersey as a destination in order to expand their services to the Island, Senator Farnham added, saying this meant the proposition would create a ‘Catch-22 situation’ for potential visitors.
