Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish the rationale for the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation's decision not to prioritise people with learning disabilities in the roll out of the covid-19 vaccination programme.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) are an independent expert advisory committee which advise the Government on vaccination. The JCVI advised that the priority for the first phase of the COVID-19 vaccination programme should be the prevention of mortality from COVID-19. The JCVI have advised that adults with severe and profound learning difficulties should be prioritised for vaccine in the first phase of the programme.