Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if the Government will publish the modelling used to determine initial vaccination targets.

Commercial confidentiality means that we cannot release any information on modelling that has been used by the Government, as that is contingent on sensitive supply information.

The Government’s priority for the current COVID-19 vaccination programme is the prevention of COVID-19 mortality and the protection of health and social care staff and systems. Our prioritisation strategy for the vaccine roll-out has allowed us to protect the most vulnerable in society as quickly as possible. These aims, coupled with the capacity of NHS England and NHS Improvement to deploy vaccines has allowed initial vaccine targets to be set. By 15 February we had successfully offered a first vaccine dose to everyone in the top four priority groups identified by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) and are on track to meet the mid-April target of offering a first vaccine dose to the top nine priority groups.