Written Statements

Thursday 6th March 2025 Written Statements

Thursday 6 March 2025

Covid-19 Vaccination

Thursday 6th March 2025 Written Statements

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

His Majesty�s Government (HMG) is committed to protecting people most vulnerable to covid-19 through vaccination as guided by the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

On 13 November 2024, the JCVI published advice on the covid-19 vaccination programme for spring 2025, autumn 2025 and spring 2026. On 12 December 2024 the Government accepted their advice that a covid-19 vaccine should be offered in spring 2025 to those in the population most vulnerable to serious outcomes from covid-19 and who are therefore most likely to benefit from vaccination.

Vaccination will therefore be offered in England in spring 2025 to:

adults aged 75 years and over;

residents in a care home for older adults;

individuals aged six months and over who are immunosuppressed, as defined in tables 3 and 4 of the covid-19 chapter of the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) green book on immunisation against infectious disease.

The Government are considering the JCVI�s advice for autumn 2025 and spring 2026 programmes and will respond in due course.

The vaccines that will be supplied for the spring 2025 programme are the Moderna mRNA (Spikevax) vaccine and Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA (Comirnaty) vaccine.

Notification of liabilities

I am now updating the House on the liabilities HMG has taken on in relation to further vaccine deployment via this statement and accompanying departmental minute laid in Parliament containing a description of the liability undertaken.

The covid-19 vaccines to be used in spring 2025 were pre-procured as part of HMG�s pandemic emergency response. As part of the contractual arrangements with covid-19 vaccine producers for these vaccines, provision of an indemnity was required in order to enter into supply agreements. This only applies to vaccines purchased as part of the pandemic emergency response.

The agreement to provide indemnity with deployment of further doses increases the contingent liability of the covid-19 vaccination programme.

I will update the House in a similar manner as appropriate, as and when any future decisions impact the contingent liability of the covid-19 vaccination programme.

[HCWS505]

Contingencies Fund Advance

Thursday 6th March 2025 Written Statements

[The Minister for Secondary Care (Karin Smyth)]

The Department of Health and Social Care�s new cash requirement for the year exceeds that provided by the main estimate 2024-25. The supplementary estimate has not yet received Royal Assent.

The Contingencies Fund advance is required to meet commitments until the supplementary estimate receives Royal Assent, at which point the Department of Health and Social Care will be able to draw down the cash from the Consolidated Fund in the usual way, to repay the Contingencies Fund advance.

Parliamentary approval for additional resource of �1,400,000,000 will be sought in a supplementary estimate for the Department of Health and Social Care. Pending that approval, urgent expenditure estimated at �1,400,000,000 will be met by repayable cash advances from the Contingencies Fund.

[HCWS503]

Plasma for Medicines Programme

Thursday 6th March 2025 Written Statements

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

My noble Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Patient Safety, Women's Health and Mental Health (Baroness Merron) has made the following written statement:

I am pleased to inform the House that the first patients in England have now received life-saving plasma derived medicines made from UK donor plasma for the first time in over 25 years. This will boost self-sufficiency and reduce reliance on imports from abroad.

Blood plasma medicines are critical for approximately 17,000 NHS patients who rely on them to treat immune deficiencies and rare disorders. They are also essential in emergency medicine, particularly during childbirth and trauma care.

Using UK donor plasma was banned in 1998. This followed concerns about a potentially increased risk of plasma recipients acquiring the brain disease variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease due to UK plasma donors being exposed to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (sometimes referred to colloquially as mad cow disease) prions from infected cattle. The NHS has relied solely on imported plasma medicines since then.

The ban was lifted in 2021 following a review by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and the Commission on Human Medicines. The plasma for medicines programme was set up in 2021 by the Department of Health and Social Care as a tripartite programme between the DHSC, NHS Blood and Transplant and NHS England. Since April 2021, NHSBT has re-established its plasma collection programme and collected 500,000 litres of plasma medicine. Following a successful procurement exercise by NHSE, Octapharma was appointed to fractionate the plasma into component parts (including albumin) and made into medicines. Shipments of UK donor plasma began in summer 2024.

This collaboration, along with the generosity of blood donors, means that the first patients in England are now benefiting from these medications. The devolved Governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are already actively engaged in the programme, with similar benefits expected in the near future.

This development is a milestone to deliver the Government�s growth mission, and reflects excellent strategic collaboration between NHSBT and NHSE. This is a further step to establishing strategic self-sufficiency in critical medicines and reducing exposure to international markets, with the global plasma medicines industry expected to rise by $15 billion (2023) to $45 billion by 2027. In England, we expect 25% self-sufficiency on immunoglobulin by the end of 2025, growing to 30-35% by 2031, and 80% self-sufficiency in albumin.

DHSC will continue to work with NHSBT, NHSE and the devolved Governments to consider the next steps for self-sufficiency in the supply of plasma medicines.

[HCWS506]

Local Government: Best Value

Thursday 6th March 2025 Written Statements

[The Minister for Local Government and English Devolution (Jim McMahon)]

My noble Friend the Under-Secretary of State, Baroness Taylor of Stevenage, has today made the following statement:

All hon. Members will recognise the importance of having well-functioning local councils which provide essential statutory services local residents rely upon. Local councils must be fit, legal and decent, and provide value for taxpayers� money. The Government will continue to work directly with a small number of councils in difficulty, and this should be done in a way that is not punitive and is based on genuine partnership to secure improvements. I would like to update the House on progress in two such cases: Thurrock council and Woking borough council.

Thurrock

Thurrock council has been under statutory intervention since September 2022. Today I am publishing the commissioners� fourth report which makes clear that the council continues to make tangible progress in its recovery and is working hard to meet its best value duty. The council has developed a corporate plan and concluded its governance review, both significant steps forward.

There is still much to do, and the changes made to date, although positive, remain fragile, and need to become embedded into the council�s business as usual activity to provide assurances that these improvements will bring about the level of transformation required. I recognise there are difficult but essential decisions to be made by the council in the coming months, including delivering Thurrock�s ambitious savings target of �18.2 million for 2025-26.

As we look ahead, and with six months before the current directions are due to end (1 September 2025), it is important to take stock of the improvement journey the council has been on and where further improvements may be required. I am asking commissioners to provide their next report in April, including their assessment of the council�s progress to meeting the best value duty. I welcome the commissioners continuing to support Thurrock council in the development of proposals for unitary local government and in their devolution ambitions.

Finally, I am announcing that I am extending the appointment of Dr Dave Smith, managing director commissioner, to 1 September 2025, and as Nicole Wood has stepped down from her role as Thurrock commissioner to become the chief executive of Essex county council, I would like to express my gratitude for the support, challenge and guidance she has provided to the council since the start of the intervention. I am minded to appoint a new finance commissioner as soon as possible.

Woking

Woking borough council has been under statutory intervention since May 2023 and today I am publishing the commissioners� fourth report. I am reassured by commissioners� comments that the council is committed to achieving the objectives that the council have worked with commissioners to set, which will radically overhaul the operation of the council. I share commissioners� concerns as set out in their report regarding the capacity of the council to deliver this programme of change and encourage the council to continue to work with the commissioners and my Department to consider how we can best enable the council to improve, for the benefit of residents. I welcome the commissioners continuing to support Woking borough council in the development of proposals for unitary local government. As Carol Culley is stepping down from her role as Woking commissioner to become executive director of finance at Birmingham city council, I would like to thank her for her commitment to Woking and the considerable skills she has brought to bear as both a reviewer and a commissioner. I am minded to appoint a new finance commissioner as soon as possible.

Conclusion

I want to acknowledge the diligent and hard-working members and officers of both Thurrock and Working who have continued to do their utmost to provide essential frontline services for residents while driving forward the necessary improvements.

The Government will play their part by repairing the foundations of the sector overall. The final local government finance settlement 2025-26, alongside funding announced at the Budget, has delivered over �5 billion of new funding for local services over and above council tax. This includes an additional �2 billion of grant through the settlement in addition to a guarantee that local authorities in England will receive at least �1.1 billion in total in 2025-26 from the new extended producer responsibility for packaging scheme, and a further �233 million of additional funding for homelessness services. Moving forward we will hardwire stability and security into the system with multi-year settlements and fewer restrictive grants. This will allow councils to focus spending on local priorities, and we will set out and measure progress on the key services and outcomes we expect local government to deliver.

I will deposit in the House Library copies of the documents I have referred to, which are also being published on gov.uk today.

[HCWS504]