Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the eligibility criteria for covid-19 boosters has changed for unpaid carers.

The Government’s policy on eligibility for vaccination programmes is based on advice from the independent scientific advisory committee, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). For autumn 2025, the JCVI advised that COVID-19 vaccination be offered to:

• adults aged 75 years old and over;
• residents in care homes for older adults; and
• persons aged six months old and over who are immunosuppressed, as defined in the ‘immunosuppression’ section of tables three and four in the COVID-19 chapter of the UK Health Security Agency’s Green Book.

The eligibility of COVID-19 vaccines for unpaid carers in autumn 2025 is the same as it was in 2024 and has not changed this year. Unpaid carers are not eligible for COVID-19 vaccination in the national programme. If unpaid carers quality on other grounds, for example, if they are immunosuppressed, then they can come forward to get a vaccine.

The Government has accepted the JCVI’s advice for COVID-19 vaccine eligibility in autumn 2025.