Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, following the rise in cases of tuberculosis, whether they plan to implement nationwide tuberculosis vaccinations, instead of the current policy of vaccinating only high-risk regional areas only.

The Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) immunisation to protect against tuberculosis (TB) is not routinely given as part of the National Health Service vaccination schedule. The BCG vaccine is only recommended for infants at greater risk of exposure to more serious childhood forms of the disease, and those people who are at greater risk through their work.

The BCG programme is based on the advice of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). In 2005 the JCVI advised that the BCG vaccine offer move from a universal school-based programme to a risk-based programme. This advice reflected the changing patterns in the epidemiology of the disease.

TB incidence in children in the United Kingdom was higher in 2005 than in 2022, when data on the incidence in children was last published. The JCVI’s advice and current Government policy does not therefore support an expansion of the current BCG programme. The JCVI keeps its advice on all vaccination programmes under review and considers new evidence as it becomes available.