Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to reconsider the criteria for covid vaccination eligibility, in the context of levels of prevalence of new variants.

The Government’s policy on the groups eligible for vaccination programmes is based on the advice of the independent expert body, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

The aim of the COVID-19 vaccination programme is to prevent serious disease, meaning hospitalisation and/or mortality, arising from COVID-19. Population immunity to COVID-19 has been increasing due to a combination of naturally acquired immunity, following recovery from infection, and vaccine-derived immunity. COVID-19 is now a relatively mild disease for most people, though it can still be unpleasant.

The JCVI carefully considered the latest evidence on the risk of hospitalisation and mortality in specific groups to provide the Government with advice on the autumn 2025 programme. A more targeted vaccination programme aimed at individuals with a higher risk of developing serious disease was advised for autumn 2025.

On 13 November 2024, the JCVI published advice on who should be offered vaccination in autumn 2025. On 26 June 2025, the Government decided, in line with this advice, that a COVID-19 vaccine should be offered in autumn 2025 to the following groups:

- adults aged 75 years old and over;

- residents in a care home for older adults; and

- individuals aged six months old and over who are immunosuppressed, as defined in the ‘immunosuppression’ sections of tables three or four in the COVID-19 chapter of the UK Health Security Agency’s (UKHSA) Green Book.

The UKHSA advises that currently, XFG and its sub lineages, sometimes called the ‘Stratus’ variant, are the most prevalent in England. This lineage is closely related to previous variants that circulated in the United Kingdom. At this time there is no indication that XFG causes more serious disease, or that the vaccines being used in the autumn 2025 campaign will not be effective against it. The UKHSA will continue to monitor both COVID-19 outcomes and variant prevalence as we enter the winter season.

This means that while the JCVI keeps the available data under regular review, there are no plans to offer vaccination through the national programme outside these JCVI advised groups for autumn 2025. All those individuals who are eligible are encouraged to take up the offer of vaccination.