Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps he has taken to ensure adequate scrutiny of potential side effects of covid-19 vaccines.

All vaccines deployed in the United Kingdom have been authorised through a rigorous and expert review process by the independent regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority (MHRA). The MHRA continually monitors vaccine safety and works with public health partners to review the effectiveness and impact of vaccines to ensure the benefits continue to outweigh any possible side effects.

The MHRA publishes weekly information on cases of side effects from COVID-19 vaccines, which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-vaccine-adverse-reactions

The MHRA continues to assess emerging data on all side effects reported from COVID-19 vaccines and any necessary regulatory action is communicated to the public and healthcare professionals.