Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if the requirement for a person entering a CQC registered care home to be vaccinated against covid-19 will apply to people entering a care home who (a) don’t have contact with residents and (b) all other people.

The regulations will require all those who enter a care home to have received a complete course of their COVID-19 vaccination unless they are exempt. Any professionals visiting a care home will also be required to show they have been vaccinated before entering the home. The requirement does not apply to people who only work in the outdoor surrounding grounds of care home premises.

The condition also does not apply to service users and their visiting friends or relatives, under 18 year olds, members of the emergency services carrying out their duties, people who are providing emergency assistance, people undertaking urgent maintenance work or those visiting service users who are dying or experiencing bereavement. Individuals who should not be vaccinated for clinical reasons can secure an exemption from the requirement.