Employers have been warned by the equalities watchdog to be “proportionate” and “non-discriminatory” over any “no jab, no job” policy they may be considering.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission said it understood firms will want to protect staff and customers by requiring employees to be vaccinated, but advises them to take other factors into consideration.
In the US, tech giants Facebook and Google are among those to say their employees would have to show proof they have been fully vaccinated before returning to the workplace.
But in the UK, Grant Shapps, theTransport Secretary, has suggested people should be double jabbed before returning to the office but that it will not be required by legislation.
A spokesman for the EHRC said: “Employers are right to want to protect their staff and their customers, particularly in contexts where people are at risk, such as care homes.
“However, requirements must be proportionate, non-discriminatory and make provision for those who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons.”
Prof Stephen Reicher, a member of the Scientific Pandemic Insights Group on Behaviours (Spi-B), which advises the UK Government, told the Guardian that making vaccines mandatory may be reasonable for those in jobs where they are responsible for the physical care of others, but the negatives outweighed the benefits for other employers.
He said: “It is far better and more effective to secure vaccination through engagement rather than through imposition.”
Asked if it was a good idea for people to have two vaccine doses before they went back to the office, Mr Shapps told Sky News: “We are not going to make it legislation that every adult has to be double vaccinated before they go back to the office, but yes, it is a good idea and yes, some companies will require it.”
Earlier this month Parliament approved legislation to introduce compulsory Covid-19 vaccinations for care home staff in England. From the autumn, anyone working in a Care Quality Commission-registered care home in England must have two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine unless they have a medical exemption.
But the impact of such a policy on jobs is not fully understood by the UK Government. Its own best estimate suggests around 40,000 care home staff risk being lost as a result of compulsory Covid-19 vaccinations, adding it could cost the industry £100 million to replace them.
The number represents 7 per cent of the profession’s 570,000-strong workforce and is the midpoint between the upper and lower estimates of 70,000 (12 per cent) and 17,000 (3 per cent) respectively.
But the UK Government has yet to compile a full impact assessment of the policy, something that annoyed several Tory MPs when they discussed the policy a few weeks ago.
On Friday, Helen Whately, the social care mininster, in response to a written parliamentary question, maintained the assessment would be published shortly.
Elsewhere, the UK Government also acknowledged it did not hold information on the number of people who have deleted the NHS Covid-19 app, instead using other metrics to assess its usage.
Data published earlier this week showed the number of people being told to self-isolate reached another record, with almost 700,000 alerts sent to Covid app users in England and Wales.
The so-called “pingdemic” has raised concerns over people deleting the app in a bid to avoid isolation.
Layla Moran, the Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, asked Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, via a written parliamentary question: “What estimate has the Government made of the number of people who have deleted the NHS Covid-19 application after installing it?”
Responding on his behalf, Jo Churchill, the public health minister, replied: “We have made no specific estimate as this information is not currently held. We are considering what further metrics we may be able to publish about app usage.”
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