Spot checks allowed

Venue owners may be allowed to carry out “spot checks” rather than oversee 100 per cent checks on entry in a significant loosening of the rules.

Venues will need to prove it is “not reasonably possible to carry out a check on every person” required “without endangering the safety of any person attending, or providing services at, the venue or event”.

Local authorities will have to pre-approve requests to carry out spot checks. The allowance follows something similarly adopted in Scotland, which brought in Covid passport checks earlier this year and then had to loosen the rules after difficulties in implementation.

Government officials privately warned in an impact assessment, leaked to The Telegraph earlier in the year, that longer queues could form outside football matches if the checks were brought in, creating frustration among attendees and potential challenges to public safety.

£10,000 fines for fakers

Anyone who “makes, adapts, supplies, or offers to supply false evidence of Covid status” could face a £10,000 fine – a sizable penalty which is higher than initial fines for not wearing masks.

The fine shows the seriousness with which fraud – a concern ministers privately raised during discussions about Covid passports – is being taken as the new system comes into place.

The NHS Covid pass, an app available on smartphones and tablets, or a paper equivalent, is required for Britons to show their status. Various foreign equivalents to the app will be allowed for people visiting from abroad.

Venues caught not properly checking Covid passports will be fined £1,000 for the first offence, though that can be reduced to £500 if paid within 14 days.  

Fines for a second offence will be £2,000, a third offence £4,000 and a fourth offence £10,000 – the maximum, with further offences continuing at that level.