To ask the Minister of Health when, in practice, people with priority needs, such as medical requirements or visiting family members, will be able to receive the relevant documentation to avail of the Vaccine International Certification Scheme.

The potential requirement to provide NI Citizens with certified proof of their vaccination status to facilitate International Travel was identified in April 2020. My officials tracked the development of the EU and WHO specification for such certificates whilst considering the technical infrastructure required to deliver a secure solution which would be interoperable with other UK systems and countries worldwide. Once the specification was finalised development work was commenced to deliver a system to provide a digital and non-digital solution for the production of, secure, trusted certificates by 19 July 2021.

In response to a unilateral decision by some destination countries to require evidence of vaccination against Covid-19 my Department diverted resources from the development of the Covid-19 Certification Scheme (CCS) to provide an interim solution for urgent International Travel. This was a manual solution to the immediate problem.

There was a large demand for certificates and priority was given to those travelling immediately to destinations that required a vaccination certificate to avoid compulsory 10 days quarantine. Other applicants were advised to use alternatives, such as PCR tests, where they existed to ensure they would be able to travel.

The interim CCS supplied 14,000 certificates over the operating period of 2 July to 23 July. A number of applications did not meet the published criteria and could not be taken forward.

The interim solution transitioned to the comprehensive CCS on 23 July. This uses a combination of NI Direct (Department of Finance) and Health and Social Care IT systems to, wherever possible, automatically verify an applicant’s identity, locate the relevant vaccination information and provide a trusted, digital certificate via an emailed PDF document or the mobile phone App – CovidCert NI. A helpline (0300 200 7814) is available for those unable to use the digital solution.

By 6 September 2021 the comprehensive CCS had delivered 79,267 certificates for those wishing to travel during August 2021 and a further 24,170 for those wishing to travel in September. Over 80% were delivered using automated processes for identity verification and matching with the vaccination records.

Both the interim and comprehensive solution have experienced challenges in supplying the requested information due to;

Providing incorrect identity documents;

Poor quality photographs of documents submitted;

Required information not supplied;

Requesting certificates for travel outside of the specified dates;

Fraudulent applications being made;

Vaccination information missing or incorrectly transcribed into the Vaccination Management System;

Mis-information circulating in Social Media concerning those who resided in the Republic of Ireland but who received vaccinations in Northern Ireland and those Northern Ireland residents holding or travelling on an Irish Passport; and

The Helpline being inundated with non-International Travel Certification queries.

It should be noted that at this time the Covid Certification Scheme has only been registered with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office for the production of certificates to facilitate International Travel.

The NI Executive has not yet established a policy on Domestic Use of Covid vaccination information.