Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department is putting in place to provide covid-19 vaccinations to (a) hospice staff and (b) hospice volunteers.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has advised that for phase one of the COVID-19 vaccine programme, the vaccine first be given to care home residents and staff and those aged over 80 years old, followed by frontline health and social care workers, and then to the rest of the population in order of age and clinical risk factors.  

As set out in Public Health England’s Green Book, which contains the latest information on vaccines and vaccination procedures, frontline healthcare workers include those working in independent, voluntary and non-standard healthcare settings, such as hospices. Temporary staff, including those working in the COVID-19 vaccination programme, students, trainees and volunteers who are working with patients must also be included.