Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that the UK’s immunisation programme is adequately funded.

Prevention is at the heart of the NHS Long Term Plan for England, which is backed by a £20.5 billion per year increase in funding for the NHS in England by 2023/24. Immunisation is a key preventative measure and the Long Term Plan commits to prioritising improvements in childhood immunisation and immunisation uptake, and to reviewing funding of general practitioner-delivered immunisations in England. The Department will work with NHS England and Public Health England to ensure that sufficient funding is allocated to fulfil these commitments.

The immunisation programme is demand-led and funding for vaccination programmes (including the cost of vaccines) in England is estimated as part of the Department’s Spending Review process. We are committed to ensuring immunisation remains adequately funded under the next Spending Review, reflecting that prevention is one of the priorities set out by my Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.

Health is a devolved matter. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advises United Kingdom health departments on vaccinations. The Health Protection (Vaccination) Regulations 2009 place a duty on the Secretary of State for Health in England to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable and subject to specified criteria, that the recommendations of JCVI are implemented.