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 role community pharmacy could play in providing a Meningitis B vaccine catch-up service to students and young people from Yeovil constituency at risk.

The Government is looking to expand the number of vaccines offered in community pharmacies across the country through local, targeted vaccination programmes. This has already started, with NHS England commissioning some community pharmacies in the Midlands, North West, London, and East of England to help deliver the year-round respiratory syncytial virus vaccination programmes to eligible pregnant women, to protect newborns, and adults aged 75 to 79 years old as well as the year-round pertussis vaccination programme to eligible pregnant women.

NHS England also nationally commissioned community pharmacies to administer flu vaccines for two- and three-year-olds for the first time in autumn 2025. An evaluation will assess whether this use of community pharmacies improves vaccine uptake and helps tackle regional health inequalities, in line with the NHS Vaccination Strategy.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) is an expert scientific advisory committee that advises the Government on eligibility for vaccination and immunisation programmes. The JCVI has been consulted on the immediate vaccine response to the outbreak and clinical effectiveness of potential future outbreak response vaccination strategies.

On the 17 March, my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, also announced to the House of Commons that he would ask the JCVI to review eligibility for meningococcal B (MenB) vaccination. The JCVI will conduct a full assessment of the cost-effectiveness of a routine adolescent MenB vaccination programme and provide a complete and formal response to my Rt Hon. Friend as soon as practicable.