Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of ensuring service personnel going on active deployment receive the covid-19 vaccination prior to being deployed to high covid-19 risk countries.
Defence is committed to keeping our personnel, their families and communities safe at home and overseas, and all our personnel are being vaccinated in line with national priority guidelines. This means that Service personnel are being offered vaccination in step with the UK population.
Whilst not arguing that Defence personnel should be vaccinated ahead of turn, we do believe that they should not be disadvantaged by being out of the country on operational duty when their turn comes. We are in discussion with Department for Health and Social Care colleagues to ensure that does not happen.