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I covered a lot of that in my response to Mr Fairlie. I see Covid certification as one part of a two-part strategy. I cannot give Mr Whittle a tangible number of members of the Polish and black and minority ethnic communities who will get vaccinated as a consequence of Covid certification. However, I am confident that, if we have that scheme plus measures to reach those communities in a direct, focused and targeted way, with messaging from within the community and access to vaccination services, we can increase vaccination levels in those communities and in others. In particular, we want to ensure that take-up is maximised among younger people and those who use higher-risk settings.

I am delighted that the convener’s knowledge of nightclubs has come to my assistance. Mr Simpson raises a serious point, and I will reflect on whether there is a way in which members of Parliament can be briefed about the approach in order to provide some reassurance about those issues. I totally understand the sensitivity of the question.

Therefore, on a weekly basis, we publicly express what we think to be the scale of the challenge and provide the evidence base for why we need to take action. We are taking other actions. We maintain a position that face coverings have to be worn in indoor settings in public places, such as on public transport, in shops and all the rest of it. We encourage physical distancing. We are taking a variety of interventions based on the evidence that we have marshalled and communicated publicly.

I fear that we are not going to have a meeting of minds on that issue. Let me make a sweeping generalisation and say that people below the age of 39 are more likely to be in nightclubs than people of my vintage—I am sorry to break the solemn news to Mr Whittle that he will not bump into me in a nightclub. Vaccination levels for people below the age of 39 are lower than they are for people above that age. Part of the approach to Covid certification is to further incentivise those people to get vaccinated so that they can participate in those activities.

Obviously, a large number of people of different ages go to some of the other settings; I accept that there is a much broader age demographic at football matches, for example. However, I encourage colleagues to think of Covid certification as one part of a two-part strategy.

I do not dispute Mr Whittle’s point about making sure that we have targeted and focused interventions for people living in deprivation, the black and minority ethnic community and other social groups that have low take-up. We accept that we need to concentrate our efforts on that. I pay tribute to the vaccinators for their efforts in that regard. In that way, we will reach the point, as Mr Mason said, of having such high vaccination levels that they provide the population with as much protection as possible.

It might help if I were to provide Mr Simpson and the committee with the opportunity to have a more detailed briefing from the officials and teams who have developed the app. I would be happy to arrange that, if that would help to reassure members about the issues and practicalities.

In some circumstances, that happens in other environments. If I show my passport at an airport, I am showing it to a complete stranger who will know my name, date of birth and passport number.

I do not for one moment trivialise the significance of the issues raised.

I contend that that is exactly what the Government has done by recognising that, as I confirmed again to the committee this morning, the Government can sustain the regulations only if there is a proportionate justification for doing so. That is, in essence, the answer to the question that the witnesses expressed to the committee and the point that Mr Rowley fairly puts to me in his question. I cannot sit here and say that the regulations will be in place until a given date, because the state of the pandemic could improve to an extent to which I do not have the justification for that. I cannot say to Mr Rowley that the regulations will be here until X date, because that would in essence be to prejudge the three-weekly review that we have to undertake.

We expect cases to be high and hospitalisation to remain high, and that will put great pressure on the system. That is why we need to take steps to suppress the prevalence of the virus, and the best way to do that is to increase vaccination uptake.

I hope that that helps to address Mr Rowley’s question.

I do not want to sound as if I am disagreeing with Mr Rowley in any way, because that is the approach that we are taking, but we express it slightly differently in the legal test of proportionality. If we find ourselves in a situation in which there is not a sustainable legal case to be made for the proportionality of the regulations, the Government will have to deal with that.

There was a lot in that question; Mr Rowley has acutely summarised the dangers and challenges.

As of yesterday, there were 1,581 delayed discharge patients in our hospitals. I know that it is a very controversial issue, but sustained efforts were made to ensure that patients who did not require to be in hospital in spring 2020 were discharged to other settings. If my memory serves me right—Dr Smith might help me out—that number went down to about 700, at its lowest.