Covid-19 Vaccine Update

Tuesday 7th March 2023 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Maria Caulfield)]

His Majesty’s Government are committed to protecting people most vulnerable to covid-19 through vaccination as guided by the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.

On the 25 January 2023, the JCVI published interim advice on the covid-19 vaccination programme for 2023. The JCVI has now provided final advice for a covid-19 vaccination booster programme in spring 2023. HMG has accepted this advice and I am informed that all four parts of the UK intend to follow the JCVI’s advice.

Covid-19 spring booster programme

The JCVI advises that a covid-19 vaccine spring booster dose should be offered to:

adults aged 75 years and over;

residents in a care home for older adults; and

individuals aged five years and over who are immunosuppressed, as defined in tables 3 or 4 in chapter 14a of the UK Health Security Agency’s (UKHSA) Green Book.

NHS England has asked covid-19 vaccination providers in England to begin the main spring 2023 booster campaign vaccinations from 17 April, with the national booking system opening beforehand. Vaccination of residents in older adult care homes will start ahead of this from 3 April. Eligible individuals will be offered the vaccine around six months after their previous dose.

The JCVI has advised the following vaccines may be used in the 2023 spring programme:

Pfizer-BioNTech bivalent;

Moderna bivalent;

Sanofi/GSK monovalent—beta variant;

Novavax monovalent—wild-type variant—only for use when alternative products are not considered clinically suitable.

The vaccine offered will depend on a person’s age and local supply considerations. Children under 12 years of age will be offered a children’s formulation of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

In addition, the JCVI’s interim advice remains that individuals at higher risk of severe covid-19 are expected to be offered a booster vaccine dose in autumn 2023 in preparation for winter 2023 to 2024.

Moving primary course covid-19 vaccine to a targeted offer

Currently the covid-19 vaccine primary course offer—first two doses—is available in the UK to everyone aged five and over. The JCVI’s interim advice in January set out that this offer, should move over the course of 2023 towards a more targeted offer during vaccination campaigns to protect those persons at higher risk of severe covid-19. This would include:

residents in a care home for older adults and staff working in care homes for older adults;

frontline health and social care workers;

all adults aged 50 years and over;

persons aged five to 49 years in a clinical risk group, as set out in chapter 14a of the UKHSA’s Green Book;

persons aged 12 to 49 years who are household contacts of people with immunosuppression;

persons aged 16 to 49 years who are carers, as set out in out in chapter 14a of the UKHSA’s Green Book.

I am now updating the House that the ongoing primary course vaccination offer will be moving to a more targeted offer available during campaign periods only for those at higher risk of severe covid-19 from July. Otherwise healthy five to 49-year-olds who have not come forward for their primary course covid-19 vaccination will no longer be able to access this offer following the close of the 2023 spring booster programme, planned to end 30 June 2023.1 would encourage those who have not taken up the offer to come forward in good time to access it before the offer ends.

Notification of liabilities

I am now updating the House on the liabilities HMG have taken on in relation to further vaccine deployment via this statement and accompanying Departmental Minutes laid in Parliament containing a description of the liability undertaken. The agreement to provide indemnity with deployment of further doses increases the contingent liability of the covid-19 vaccination programme.

On 20 December 2022, the Sanofi/GSK covid-19 vaccine, VidPrevtyn Beta, was authorised by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). The JCVI has provided deployment advice on VidPrevtyn Beta as part of its advice on the spring programme.

The agreement to provide an indemnity as part of the contract between HMG and Sanofi/GSK creates a new contingent liability on the covid-19 vaccination programme. Deployment of effective vaccines to targeted groups has been and remains a key part of the Government’s strategy to manage covid-19.

I will update the House in a similar manner as and when other covid-19 vaccines or additional doses of vaccines already in use in the UK are deployed.

[HCWS612]