Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the equality implications of making human papilloma virus vaccination available to men who have sex with men between the ages of 16 and 40, while women over the age of 18 are not able to access the vaccine.

The Government is advised on all immunisation matters by the independent expert Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). The JCVI is currently considering possible extension of the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccination programme to men who have sex with men (MSM) and to adolescent boys.

The JCVI has noted that if a targeted programme for MSM were to go ahead, then consideration would need to be given as to whether other groups should have access to HPV vaccination – for example, unimmunised women over 17 years of age.

A full equality impact assessment will be undertaken for any proposed changes to the HPV programme.