Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of extending routine NHS vaccination against Meningitis B to teenagers and first-year university students.

Policy regarding vaccination programmes is based on advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). The JCVI keeps all vaccination programmes under review, and the meningococcal sub-committee have met a number of times over the past year to discuss the meningococcal vaccination programme. The minutes of all JCVI meetings are available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/joint-committee-on-vaccination-and-immunisation#sub-committee-membership-and-minutes

In 2013, the JCVI advised that the cost-effectiveness of an adolescent Meningitis B (MenB) vaccination programme would be dependent on the impact of the vaccine on protection against meningococcal carriage, which was uncertain at the time. Recent evidence considered by the meningococcal sub-committee indicates that MenB vaccines do not protect against carriage of meningococcus serogroup B in adolescents.

The sub-committee noted that when available, they would like to review a model evaluating the impact of the MenB vaccine when given in a teenage programme in a two-dose schedule, including the impact on meningococcal disease and gonorrhoea.

Adolescents remain eligible for the MenACWY vaccine until their 25th birthday.