Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department made an assessment of the potential merits of altering a person's priority in the covid-19 vaccine rollout if they were about to undergo lifesaving surgery with a substantial stay in hospital, to minimise the risk of that person contracting covid-19 during treatment and recovery.

If someone is due to undergo lifesaving surgery, it is likely they will have already been captured in priority cohort four as clinically extremely vulnerable or cohort six as clinically vulnerable. Included in the description of those classed as clinically extremely vulnerable are those identified based on clinical judgement and an assessment of their needs. If someone undergoing lifesaving surgery is deemed to be at high risk of mortality from COVID-19 by their clinician then they will have been offered their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine by 14 February 2021.