Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether people who live in the same home as people who are clinically extremely vulnerable will receive a vaccine for covid-19 before the rest of the general public.

Whilst there is a desire for the whole United Kingdom population to be vaccinated, there may need to be an element of prioritisation based on vaccine supply, availability and evidence as data emerges from clinical trials on safety and efficacy in different cohorts of the population.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) are the independent experts who provide advice to Government on which vaccine(s) the UK should use and which groups within the population to prioritise. The JCVI and the JCVI sub-committee are currently reviewing evidence on clinical risk factors associated with serious disease and mortality from COVID-19. Following a review of the evidence, the Committee will develop advice on risk groups for any future COVID-19 vaccination programme.

The latest JCVI recommendations on the priority groups for a COVID-19 vaccine is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/priority-groups-for-coronavirus-covid-19-vaccination-advice-from-the-jcvi-25-september-2020

The minutes of JCVI committee meetings and statements on COVID-19 vaccination are available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/joint-committee-on-vaccination-and-immunisation