Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to introduce a HPV vaccine catch-up programme for boys in 2020-21.

There are no plans for a catch-up programme for older boys as evidence suggests they are already benefitting greatly from the substantial herd protection that has built up from the success of 10 years of the girls’ human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination programme. The priority is to make sure that as many eligible 12-13 year-old boys as possible, are offered protection from HPV infection by maximising uptake in the boys’ programme, which started from September 2019.