Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the WHO recommendation that member states temporarily suspend HPV vaccination programmes for boys.

The implications of the World Health Organization’s advice on temporarily suspending human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination programmes for boys are due to be discussed at the next meeting of the Joint Committee of Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) in February 2020. The Department does not currently have plans to suspend the HPV vaccination programme for boys in England, but will take account of the JCVI’s advice in any future review of its policy on this issue.