Vaccine passport: Almost 300 fraudulent claims rejected

The CovidCertNI allows people to show they have had two doses of a vaccine if they travel abroad

Almost 300 "fraudulent applications" for Covid-19 vaccine certificates have been rejected, the head of the programme has said.

The certificate allows travellers to prove they are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 for countries which require that for entry.

The system was offline for several days having been dogged by technical problems but resumed on Saturday night.

Dr Eddie O'Neill said it was now "stable and running well".

He added: "We've rejected 294 applications where people have fraudulently tried to claim a certificate, we had three individuals who made 38 applications between them, putting in different vaccination dates every time."

People can apply through the NI Direct Website if they are travelling abroad up to and including 17 August.

Dr O'Neill said he hoped to open the process "without restriction", but that would depend on "the stability of the system".

He told the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme on Monday: "We got 5,843 out to people in 27-and-a-half hours so I think that's quite impressive.

"The system is stable, it's running well, we did everything as we said we would do it, we released it in phases and now people are hopefully feeling a bit less anxious."

Dr Eddie O'Neill says the system is being monitored to see how it copes with demand

Dr O'Neill said the system was allowing 82-87% of people to get through the automated identity check and that a team was on standby to help anyone who did not get through that process.

Once a vaccine certificate is issued, it has a three month limit before it expires.

Dr O'Neill said: "There's a QR code which is the security measure on it which allows other countries to authenticate that this is a certificate that we've produced.

"It's important for security features that we have that expiry date on them so that there's less chance of people being able to mimic or fraudulently produce certificates."

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People have been encouraged to take up the digital option for receiving their certificate due to the potential for problems with printed copies, including poor-quality printers producing QR codes which might not scan.

The system was offline for a number of days amid concerns about some users being able to see other people's information.

The data breach that caused the suspension has been reported to the Information Commissioner's Office, which said it is assessing what happened.

When asked about the security problems on Friday, Dr O'Neill said: "The problem wasn't actually in anything that we built."

He said the system was using the NI Direct website's identity facility, through which people can set up a personal user account to access services such as driving licence renewals.

He added: "It was never built for the scale of applications that we've been getting - thousands and thousands - and as a result of that just one of the components in the back end just failed."

How does NI compare to the rest of the UK?

Adults registered with GPs in England can apply for a NHS Covid Pass, which allows users to show proof of their vaccination, test or immunity status.

They are available to download through the NHS app or applicants can request a paper document to be posted to their home address.

Holidaymakers in Scotland have been able to access a vaccine certificate since 19 May.

In Wales, paper vaccine certificates have been available since May, and on 25 June the digital NHS Covid Pass became available for "urgent travel" only.