NI Public Health Bill including mandatory vaccinations scrapped

Legislation which could have included mandatory vaccinations for people in Northern Ireland has been scrapped by the Health Minister Mike Nesbitt.

The NI Public Health Bill was designed to deal with future public health emergencies like the coronavirus pandemic.

However, campaigners said the new law would breach civil liberties and individual human rights.

The Department of Health previously said the new law was necessary to replace outdated legislation and bring Northern Ireland into line with the rest of the UK.

As well as infectious diseases, the bill was designed to cover infection and contamination from biological, chemical and radiological sources.

Nesbitt confirmed the bill was being scrapped during health question time in the assembly on Monday.

He said there had been concerns raised about human rights and the Norther Ireland government “could potentially overreach into people’s personal freedoms and decision-making”.

“It was early in my tenure that I was asked to sign off on a consultation. Perhaps if I had been in post longer, I might have come to the view that it was too soon – too soon after the Covid-19 pandemic to go to public consultation,” Nesbitt told MLAs.

“Certainly that is the impression I get from the 8,000-plus responses to the consultation, and indeed the reaction at the time.”

The minister said he had put mandatory vaccinations in the draft legislation “as an option”.

“I didn’t support it – but who am I to tell the population of Northern Ireland ‘you can’t even have an opinion on that’?”

He said his department would now have to “go away and re-engage with people and help them understand” the “draconian” elements of the existing legislation in the 1967 act and the need for a new law which reflects modern society.

DUP health spokesperson Diane Dodds said the decision to scrap the bill was “long overdue”.

“From the outset, the DUP warned that the draft proposals represented a massive overreach and risked handing sweeping powers to the Department of Health without proper democratic oversight,” she said.

“The experience of the Covid-19 pandemic must never be repeated in a way that tramples on personal liberty or undermines public trust. Protecting health and protecting rights must go hand in hand.”