Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of age-based eligibility criteria for the respiratory syncytial virus vaccine.

In June 2023, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) suggested an initial respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) programme to potentially vaccinate a cohort aged from 75 to 79 years old, and then for those turning 75 years old in subsequent years. The Department accepted the JCVI’s advice, and this is the current policy for the programme.

The JCVI has not provided advice on other groups, as the analysis that informed their advice looked at burden by age. The JCVI noted that the burden of RSV in older adults is comparatively less well understood than in infants, and is considered to be underestimated by existing routine surveillance. The committee agreed that more work was required to obtain better estimates of the RSV burden in adults. These analyses will include people in clinical risk groups.

RSV vaccination programmes to protect older adults and newborn babies, via maternal vaccination, began on 1 September in England. The Department will consider any further JCVI advice on who should be offered an RSV immunisation, as the committee continues to keep the evidence under review.