Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will ring-fence funding to enable the mass procurement and delivery of NHS meningitis B vaccines to groups identified by clinical experts as being at increased risk.

Decisions on eligibility for routine vaccination programmes are taken by the department on the basis of independent scientific advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

In 2015, following review of the epidemiology, disease burden, vaccine safety and efficacy, and cost-effectiveness analysis, the JCVI recommended that young infants should be routinely vaccinated against meningococcal B (MenB) with the aim of providing optimal protection as early as possible, as this age group had the highest disease incidence.

In response to the meningitis outbreak in Kent, my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has asked the JCVI to review eligibility for MenB vaccination in older children and young adults. As ever, the Government will carefully consider JCVI advice.