Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to prioritise COVID-19 vaccinations for clinically extremely vulnerable groups irrespective of age.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has advised that all clinically extremely vulnerable individuals aged 16 years old and above should receive a COVID-19 vaccination in the first phase of the programme.

Children, including those in at risk groups, have a very low risk of mortality from COVID-19 and the advice of the JCVI is for the first phase of vaccination to involve a targeted programme to vaccinate those most at risk of mortality. Data from the first wave of the pandemic in the United Kingdom indicated that mortality in children was only seen in older children with severe neuro-disabilities. Given this, the JCVI has advised exceptional use of the vaccine outside of the authorisation in this group where these children require residential care and are as such at higher risk of exposure.