Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many clinically vulnerable and clinically extremely vulnerable people have been shielding during the covid-19 outbreak; and what assessment he has made of the level of risk from covid-19 of hospitalisation or death for people in those groups who have been vaccinated.

Since the inception of the Shielded Patient List (SPL) in March 2020, over 3.8 million individuals have been identified as clinically extremely vulnerable and added to the list. The first iteration of the SPL contained around 870,000 individuals, which increased to around 2.3 million following additions by general practitioners and clinicians. An additional 1.5 million people were identified and added to the SPL in February 2021 following the COVID-19 Population Risk Assessment. Clinically vulnerable individuals have never been advised to shield as they only face a moderate risk from COVID-19.

No specific assessment has been made. Those identified as clinically extremely vulnerable would have differing levels risks of hospitalisation and death from COVID-19 following vaccination, subject to the individual circumstances of each person.