Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the evidential basis is for not including household members of people who are clinically vulnerable within the eligibility criteria for covid-19 booster vaccinations.

As with all United Kingdom vaccination programmes, the decision of which groups are eligible for a particular part of the programme is made following careful consideration of the groups most at risk of illness, severe illness, or death, as a consequence of infection.

As currently available COVID-19 vaccines provide limited protection against transmission and mild or asymptomatic disease, the focus of the programme is on offering vaccination to those most likely to directly benefit, particularly those with underlying health conditions that increase their risk of hospitalisation following infection.

The benefit of vaccinating an individual to reduce the risk of severe disease in other people is much less evident now compared with previous years. For this reason, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation did not advise an offer of COVID-19 vaccinations in autumn 2024 for household contacts of people with immunosuppression.