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 evidential basis for the decision not to vaccinate (a) school staff and (b) other frontline workers against covid-19; and if he will make a statement.

On 26 February the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) published their interim advice for phase two of the COVID-19 vaccination programme which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/priority-groups-for-phase-2-of-the-coronavirus-covid-19-vaccination-programme-advice-from-the-jcvi

The JCVI has advised that the evidence indicates that certain occupations have a higher risk of exposure and these are more likely to be occupations involving frequent contact with multiple other people in enclosed settings. However, delivery of a programme targeting occupational groups is recognised to be operationally complex given a number of key factors including that robust data on the infection exposure risk for every occupational group, or in every occupational setting, are not available. Regarding school staff specifically, data sources considered by the JCVI suggest that risk of infection among staff in educational settings is comparable with that seen in the general population.

We will follow the recommended approach of the JCVI, subject to the final advice given by the independent expert committee. School staff and other frontline workers who are over 50 years old or who have underlying health conditions which make them clinically vulnerable to COVID-19 will be vaccinated in the current first phase, which will be completed by the middle of April.