Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reason his policy was that immunocompromised people should receive their second covid-19 vaccination at 12 weeks after receipt of their first covid-19 vaccination prior to 14 May 2021.

The policy for immunocompromised people is based on the advice of the independent experts of the Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

The decision to extend the dosing interval to up to twelve weeks, made on 30 December 2019, was based on advice from the JCVI and was designed to maximize the impact of the vaccination programme. Whilst the second vaccine dose is important to sustain the protection and extend its duration, in the short term the additional impact of the second dose is likely to be modest and most of the initial protection from clinical disease is after the first dose of vaccine. The four United Kingdom Chief Medical Officers agreed with the JCVI that prioritising the first doses of vaccine for as many people as possible on the priority list would protect the greatest number of at-risk people in the shortest possible time.

On 14 May 2021, the Government accepted new advice from the JCVI and announced that appointments for a second dose of a vaccine would be brought forward from 12 to eight weeks for the remaining people in the top nine priority groups who have yet to receive their second dose. This is to ensure the strongest possible protection from the virus at an earlier opportunity in response to the B1.617.2 variant of concern, first identified in India. As a result, immuno-suppressed patients who are waiting to have their second dose may therefore be invited for to book an appointment within this revised timeframe.