Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to publish a winter preparedness analysis for 2025-26 defining eligibility for covid boosters.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) is an independent expert committee which reviews the latest data on COVID-19 risks, vaccine safety, and effectiveness and advises the department on the approach to vaccination and immunisation programmes. The JCVI published advice for future COVID-19 vaccination campaigns in autumn 2025 and spring 2026 in November 2024, and published advice for autumn 2026 and spring 2027 in July 2025. The Government accepted JCVI advice for autumn 2025 in June 2025. The Government is considering the JCVI’s advice for 2026 and spring 2027 carefully and will respond in due course.
The primary aim of the national COVID-19 vaccination programme remains the prevention of serious disease, involving hospitalisations and deaths, arising from COVID-19. The JCVI assessment indicates that the oldest age cohorts and individuals who are immunosuppressed are the two groups who continue to be at higher risk of serious disease.
Therefore, in autumn 2025, a COVID-19 vaccination is being offered to:
- adults aged 75 years old and over;
- residents in a care home for older adults;
- individuals aged six months and over who are immunosuppressed, as defined in the ‘immunosuppression’ sections of tables 3 or 4 in the COVID-19 chapter of the UK Health Security Agency Green Book.
The National Health Service is preparing earlier and more robustly for winter this year, with rigorous stress testing of local plans, closer working with local partners, and a far earlier kick-off of winter preparations. Vaccinations have been ramped up across the board for flu, COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus so families can protect themselves and others. This includes the surge capacity and escalation plans in place across all NHS and urgent care services. As set out in the 2025/26 Urgent Emergency Care Plan, the NHS is focusing on improvements that will see the biggest impact on urgent and emergency care performance this winter. The 2025/26 Urgent Emergency Care Plan is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/urgent-and-emergency-care-plan-2025-26/
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of excluding (a) household members and (b) carers from eligibility for covid-19 vaccinations on clinically extremely vulnerable people.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to protecting those most vulnerable to COVID-19 through vaccination, as guided by the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). The primary aim of the national COVID-19 vaccination programme remains the prevention of serious illness, involving hospitalisations and deaths, arising from COVID-19.
In its advice for autumn 2024, the JCVI advised that in the era of highly transmissible Omicron sub-variants, any protection offered by the vaccine against transmission of infection from one person to another is expected to be extremely limited. Therefore, the indirect benefits of vaccination, namely vaccinating an individual such as a carer or household member to reduce the risk of severe disease in other people, are less evident now compared with previous years. Accordingly, in line with JCVI advice, carers were not eligible for a COVID-19 vaccination in autumn 2024.
In line with the JCVI advice, the autumn 2025 programme is focused on targeted vaccination of the oldest adults, namely those aged 75 years old and over, residents in care homes for older adults, and individuals who are immunosuppressed. These are the groups who continue to be at higher risk of serious disease, including mortality. Any carer or household member who is eligible for vaccination through age or immunosuppression is encouraged to take up the offer of vaccination.
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance NHS England has issued on covid booster vaccination for patients who are (a) immunosuppressed and (b) on long-term steroid therapy; and what steps his Department is taking to help ensure clinically vulnerable people are offered protection against (i) Stratus and (ii) other circulating covid variants.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The COVID-19 vaccine is offered to those in the population most vulnerable to serious outcomes from COVID-19 and who are therefore most likely to benefit from vaccination. For autumn and winter 2025/26, the COVID-19 vaccination is offered to:
- residents in a care home for older adults;
- all adults aged 75 years old and over; and
- persons aged six months and over who are immunosuppressed, as defined in tables three and four of the COVID-19 chapter of the Green Book, which is available at the following link:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68b5be03536d629f9c82a97d/Green-book-chapter-COVID-19_1_9_25.pdf.
NHS England, in partnership with the UK Heath Security Agency and the Department, has developed a suite of communications resources to encourage eligible people to get their autumn and winter vaccinations. As part of this, NHS England has produced a variety of posters and digital-screens, as well as a factsheet specifically designed for pharmacies to support conversations with individuals about eligibility for a COVID-19 vaccine.
National invitations are designed to supplement local invitations, to ensure the National Health Service reaches as many people as possible who may be eligible. For COVID-19 vaccinations, everyone aged five to 74 years old whose NHS record suggests they may be immunosuppressed due to a medical condition or treatment, and all those eligible by age, are contacted.
Eligible people are able to book via the National Booking Service or by calling 119. For those that are uncertain, they can book an appointment and discuss their eligibility with a clinician at the appointment.
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to inform patients (a) with chronic autoimmune conditions and (b) on immunosuppressive therapy of their eligibility for covid boosters in winter 2025-26; and what steps the NHS plans to take to help ensure such patients are protected.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England, in partnership with the UK Heath Security Agency and the Department, has developed a suite of communications resources to encourage eligible people to get their autumn and winter vaccinations. As part of this, NHS England has produced a variety of posters and digital-screens, as well as a factsheet specifically designed for pharmacies to support conversations with individuals about eligibility for a COVID-19 vaccine.
The COVID-19 vaccine is offered to those in the population most vulnerable to serious outcomes from COVID-19 and who are therefore most likely to benefit from vaccination. For autumn and winter 2025/26, the COVID-19 vaccination is offered to:
- residents in a care home for older adults;
- all adults aged 75 years old and over; and
- persons aged six months and over who are immunosuppressed, as defined in tables three and four of the COVID-19 chapter of the Green Book, which is available at the following link:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68b5be03536d629f9c82a97d/Green-book-chapter-COVID-19_1_9_25.pdf.
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has undertaken an equality impact assessment for the covid-19 autumn vaccination eligibility criteria for households containing clinically extremely vulnerable people.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to protecting those most vulnerable to COVID-19 through vaccination, as guided by the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).
In line with JCVI advice, the autumn 2025 programme is focussed on targeted vaccination of those aged 75 years old and over, residents in care homes for older adults, and individuals who are immunosuppressed. These are the groups who continue to be at higher risk of serious disease, including mortality.
Equality Impact Assessments were undertaken to inform the development of the COVID-19 autumn 2024 and autumn 2025 vaccination campaigns and eligibility criteria.
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the availability of Enhertu for the treatment of (a) HER2-positive and (b) HER2-low breast cancer.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body that makes recommendations for the National Health Service on whether new licensed medicines should be routinely funded by the NHS based on an evaluation of a treatment’s costs and benefits. These are very difficult decisions to make, and it is important that they are made independently and based on the available evidence. The NHS in England is legally required to fund medicines recommended by NICE.
NICE has been able to recommend Enhertu for treating HER2-positive unresectable or metastatic breast cancer after one or more anti-HER2 treatments and for treating HER2-positive unresectable or metastatic breast cancer after 2 or more anti-HER2 therapies. Enhertu is now available for NHS patients in line with NICE’s recommendations.
On 29 July 2024, NICE published final guidance on Enhertu for use in the treatment of HER2-low metastatic breast cancer, and it was unable to recommend this life-extending treatment. The only obstacle to access for NHS patients to Enhertu is price, and my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, met the manufacturers of Enhertu, AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo to encourage them to re-enter discussions with NHS England with a view to reaching a price at which NICE would be able to recommend Enhertu.
However, despite NICE and NHS England offering unprecedented flexibility, the companies were unable to offer Enhertu at a cost-effective price. NICE’s guidance will therefore remain unchanged for the moment. However, NICE remains open to being as flexible as possible with commercial partners and are willing to enter into a new NICE appraisal if there is movement on pricing.
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help prevent patients being treated in (a) corridors, (b) converted office spaces, (c) gyms and (d) other inappropriate spaces in winter 2025-26.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are doing everything we can as fast as we can to tackle and eliminate corridor care. The Government is determined to get the National Health Service back on its feet, so patients can be treated with dignity.
Our Urgent and Emergency Care Plan, published in June 2025, set out the steps we are taking to ensure that patients will receive better, faster, and more appropriate emergency care this winter, backed by a total of nearly £450 million of funding. This includes a commitment to publish data on the prevalence of corridor care.
We have been taking key steps to ensure that the health service is prepared for the colder months. This includes taking actions to try to reduce the demand pressure on accident and emergency departments, increase vaccination rates, and offer health checks to the most vulnerable, as well as stress-testing integrated care board and trust winter plans to confirm they are able to meet demand and support patient flow.
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the conclusive findings were of the Government-funded psilocybin trial that concluded in February 2024.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Clinician Scientist Fellowship titled ‘A Feasibility RCT of Single-Dose Psilocybin in Unipolar Depressive Disorder Resistant to Standard Treatments’ is shown on the NIHR Funding and Awards website as concluding in February 2024. The progress of this award was significantly delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The results are therefore not yet available and are due to be released in 2026.
The main aim of this award is to investigate the feasibility of conducting a trial in this patient group and to contribute towards the design of a more definitive study. The award has resulted in the creation of the Psychoactive Trials Group at King’s College London, which is one of the world’s most experienced clinical research teams in this emerging area of treatment.
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with Baroness Casey on how sector stakeholders can engage with the commission on adult social care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, engages with Baroness Louise Casey regularly on a number of issues, including adult social care.
On 8 September, my Rt. Hon. Friend attended cross-party discussions, chaired by Baroness Casey, with representatives from political parties.
Over the coming months, the commission will start a national conversation by inviting members of the public, people drawing on care and support, and organisations to submit evidence and to share their stories and ideas for improvement of the existing adult social care system. The commission will set out more details in due course.
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of adult social care on supporting people of working age into the labour market.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Adult social care plays a vital role and directly supports people of working age to enter, remain in, or return to employment, and ultimately to maintain people’s independence. By ensuring individuals receive the right care in the right place at the right time, they are better able to contribute to society through employment, volunteering, or other forms of participation. To support working aged people into the labour market, earnings from employment are specifically disregarded from financial assessments, with further information available at the following link:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/2672/regulation/14
This is to ensure that working aged adults who are in employment are able to retain their earnings in full, and supplement their income, in addition to retaining the Minimum Income Guarantee (MIG) after being charged for their social care.
The Government also recognises the importance of supporting unpaid carers. Access to appropriate support, such as respite care, is important to help carers maintain their own wellbeing and avoid burnout, which can otherwise lead to withdrawal from the workforce. To support this, we are committed to reviewing the implementation of Carer’s Leave and examining the benefits of introducing paid Carer’s Leave.