Practices will no longer have to require that all patient facing staff have a full COVID vaccination course, Health Secretary Sajid Javid confirmed last night.

The repeal of the mandatory vaccination law will be subject to a formal consultation and parliamentary approval – and clinicians may face pressure from their regulators if they choose to remain unvaccinated against COVID.

Mr Javid said he was now turning to the professional regulators who are being asked to conduct “urgent” reviews of their guidance on vaccination against occupational diseases, including COVID.

He told MPs that the emergence of the Omicron variant had changed the “risks and balances” associated with the virus.

He said: “It was clear that vaccination was the very best way to keep vulnerable people safe from Delta because quite simply, if you’re not infected, you can’t infect someone else.

“Balanced against this clear benefit was the risk that there would always be some people who would not do the responsible thing and choose to remain unvaccinated and in doing so, choosing to walk away from their jobs in health and care.

“Despite it being their choice to leave their jobs, we have to consider the impact on the workforce in NHS and social care settings. Especially at a time when we already had a shortage of workers and near full employment across the economy.”

The decision was welcomed by medical organisations but criticised by former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, chair of the House of Commons Health committee, as “completely wrong.”

He revealed: “I was intending to introduce mandatory flu vaccinations in my final year as Health Secretary before I was moved to another role. I considered the issue carefully, with all the sensitivities involved, but concluded it was non-negotiable that staff working with highly vulnerable people should do everything possible to protect them against asymptomatic disease. If that isn’t ‘do no harm’ what is?

He added: “I do concede the practical arguments about workforce shortages are compelling – some predicted entire maternity units could be put at risk – but the solution is not a U-turn on an important safety matter of principle but finally gripping the workforce crisis once and for all.”

The British Medical Association said it would be important to maintain strong infection control measures in the NHS to maintain protection of patients and staff.

Chair Dr Chaand Nagpaul said: “While the BMA fully supports the vaccination rollout, it is now clear that the impact of mandatory vaccination on NHS staffing levels at a time of acute workforce shortages and a record waiting lists, would have put the continuity of healthcare services at risk and therefore compromised patient care and safety.

“Therefore, today’s decision is the right one, and is a more proportionate approach that takes into account the changing nature of Covid-19 and how differently the now dominant, and highly-transmissible, variant Omicron behaves compared with Delta.”