(3 days, 21 hours ago)
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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.
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