Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether UK citizens will be given a choice of COVID-19 vaccine.

Both vaccines give very high protection against severe disease, which is the primary aim of the first phase of the programme, and both vaccines have good safety profiles. The logistical challenges posed by the storage and distribution requirements for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine mean that in some populations, the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is the only vaccine which can be deployed rapidly, and without substantial vaccine wastage. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation does not advise a preference for either vaccine in any specific population. For operational and programmatic reasons, such as to enable more extensive and timely vaccine coverage, one vaccine may be offered in certain settings in preference over another vaccine.