Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve transparency in the decision-making processes of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation; and whether this includes publishing detailed evidence underlying its recommendations.

As per the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation’s (JCVI) code of practice, committee minutes are published within six weeks of the meeting, via its webpage. These minutes outline the information presented to members and summarise the considerations and discussion. The JCVI also publishes advice statements on the GOV.UK website, and these statements outline the advice given and the rationale.

Where possible, data considered by the committee is referenced in minutes and statements. On occasion, data reviewed by the committee may remain unpublished when the minutes are released. This could be due to the data being new, sensitive, or subject to confidentiality. For transparency and public interest, the JCVI encourages all researchers who present to the committee to publish data once appropriate.