To ask the Minister of Health for an update on his plans to introduce a mechanism for Northern Irish travellers to provide confirmation of their COVID-19 vaccination status.

My Department is developing a COVID status Validation Service (CVS) that will allow NI residents to provide verified proof of vaccination, recent test or Covid immunity, where required. The service is due to go live in Northern Ireland on or before 19 July.

Initially certificates will be provided in the agreed specialised paper format and an app similar to the NHS app will follow by mid-August. The process of applying for and receiving paper certification is expected to take 10 days. The process requires several security checks to be made, ensuring that personal health and social care information is protected.

The work takes into account current World Health Organisation (WHO) and EU common standards for COVID status certificates. Any documents produced outside of this CVS are unlikely to meet these standards and therefore cannot be relied upon to meet other countries’ entry requirements. Currently GPs, vaccination centres, the Department of Health and other parts of the health service cannot produce proof of vaccine to the required standard for travel purposes.

The digital version of certification will also support evidencing of negative PCR COVID tests as an alternative to vaccination.