Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the (a) potential effect on the incidence of disease in at-risk populations of changes to the meningococcal C vaccination programme and (b) accuracy of the modelling of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation at the time of its recommendation that that programme be changed.

Those at increased risk of meningococcal disease are clearly identified in the Green Book as children and adults with asplenia, splenic dysfunction or complement disorders. These at-risk individuals continue to be eligible for vaccination against Meningitis C disease (Men C), currently with MenACWY vaccine. Overall risk of MenC disease remains low in England with only 64 cases across the whole population in the last epidemiological year (2017/18).

Modelling by its very nature is subject to uncertainty and can be influenced by the methods, the quality of data and the underlying assumptions used. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation was aware of published modelling data on the impact of the potential removal of the infant MenC dose and additional estimates were provided by Public Health England. The estimates were considered plausible by those experts on the committee, the minutes of which can be accessed via the following link:

https://m.box.com/shared_item/https%3A%2F%2Fapp.box.com%2Fs%2Fiddfb4ppwkmtjusir2tc/view/229171865007