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 raising the age threshold for eligibility for the Covid-19 vaccine to 75 on clinically vulnerable groups.

The Government’s policy on the groups eligible for vaccination programmes is based on the advice of the independent expert body, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

The JCVI and the JCVI COVID-19 sub-committee carefully considered the evidence on the risk of illness, serious disease, and death as a consequence of COVID-19, as well as modelling and cost-effectiveness analysis, during their meetings of 2024, with the minutes available on the GOV.UK website. Evidence indicated that whilst the risk from COVID-19 is now much lower for most people, adults aged 75 years old and over, residents in care homes for older adults, and those who are immunosuppressed are at highest risk of serious COVID-19 disease.

Therefore, a more targeted vaccination programme, aimed at the individuals with a higher risk of developing serious disease, and where vaccination was considered potentially cost-effective, was advised for autumn 2025.

The JCVI continues to keep the COVID-19 vaccination programme under review and, through their published list of research recommendations, has actively encouraged further research on the impact of COVID-19 in individuals with underlying medical conditions in the current epidemiological context.