Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how COVID-19 vaccines will be distributed to communal living facilities, including almshouses; and whether such vaccines will be delivered on site at these facilities.

The National Health Service has a tried and tested track record for delivering vaccination programmes. The NHS will work with existing health and social care partners across the system to ensure that COVID-19 vaccines can be deployed safely and effectively. Following the advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation’s, vaccines are currently being given to care home residents and staff, those over 80 years old, and health and social care workers, then amongst the rest of the population in order of age and risk.

The NHS has developed three different models of delivery to allow the vaccine to be available to a wider population through hospital hubs, vaccination centres, and local vaccination services. As the vaccination programme builds, it will gradually be able to extend to more practices/community settings, as well as mass vaccination centres in the coming months. More than 730 vaccination sites have already been established across the United Kingdom and hundreds more are opening to take the current total to over 1,000.