Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Kamall on 18 May (HL158 and HL159) and 20 May (HL160), what steps they are taking to improve the data they need to ensure that they can (1) make informed decisions regarding policies to protect the immunocompromised, and (2) deliver treatments where needed.

NHS Digital is working with data sources in primary and secondary care to improve the access to relevant data which identifies those who are immunocompromised and build a technical platform to identify such patients for different interventions, such as treatments and vaccines. The Department has also established the Therapeutics Clinical Review Panel which studies high risk patient cohorts which could be eligible for COVID-19 therapies. The panel will provide advice to the United Kingdom Chief Medical Officers on eligibility for treatments. In addition, the National Institute for Health and Care Research is commissioning a rapid study on those who remain vulnerable to poor outcomes from COVID-19 despite vaccination.