Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, across the UK, how many unused covid-19 vaccines have reached their expiry date in each of the last nine months.

Information on vaccine wastage prior to it entering the NHS England and NHS Improvement supply chain is not held in the format requested. Information on vaccine wastage within the NHS England and NHS Improvement supply chain is not held centrally. NHS England and NHS Improvement’s review of site deliveries, vaccination events, and site stocktakes would suggest that the number of vaccines deemed unusable at that point are within the bounds of planned expected waste.

Robust mitigations have been put in place throughout the vaccination programme to reduce wastage. Stock levels have been closely monitored at a regional, system and site level with deliveries adjusted accordingly. This includes keeping stock back in the supply chain and encouraging sites to reallocate stock at a local level, rather than draw from central stores. Vaccine deliveries have been carefully managed in line with site capacity, population density and available supply, to ensure that any vaccine being delivered would be used within as short a timeframe as possible.

Furthermore, following recent discussions with Pfizer and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, on 17 January 2022 NHS England and NHS Improvement wrote to healthcare providers setting out that certain unpunctured and undamaged Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines have had their post thaw shelf-life extended from 31 days to 45 days. This proactive step will help to further mitigate the risk of vaccine wastage following the rapid scaling-up of the booster programme over Christmas. More information can be found at the following link:

www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/publication/extending-the-post-thaw-expiry-date-of-specific-batches-of-comirnaty-30-microgram-dose-for-adults-and-adolescents/