Powers to impose compulsory vaccination
Most legal powers needed to manage a pandemic are provided under the Public Health Acts covering England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, which empower local authorities to require examination, hospitalisation, or isolation of infected persons, create a criminal offence relating to exposing others to risk of infection, and allow some controls over school attendance and playgrounds.
In other words, although local authorities cannot force people to be vaccinated under those powers, they can for example refuse to admit children to school unless they have been vaccinated.
However, the Government has extremely broad powers for tackling an emergency, in the Civil Contingencies Act 2004. This includes a special procedure for making regulations in an emergency, if existing legislation could not relied upon without the risk of serious delay, and various other conditions are met.
In particular:
22 Scope of emergency regulations
(1) Emergency regulations may make any provision which the person making the regulations is satisfied is appropriate for the purpose of preventing, controlling or mitigating an aspect or effect of the emergency in respect of which the regulations are made.
(2) In particular, emergency regulations may make any provision which the person making the regulations is satisfied is appropriate for the purpose of—
(a) protecting human life, health or safety,
(b) treating human illness or injury,
Thus, if the situation became serious enough for compulsory vaccination to be considered necessary, regulations could be introduced under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 and these could include penalties for non-compliance.
http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/research/briefings/snsc-05164.pdf
This is what we’re up against! If you value your right to choose, if you want to retain your right to say what is put into your body, even if you are pro vaccinations but think people have a right to accept or reject medical intervention, please get involved with our protests and write lobbying letters to your government official!
