Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his department plans to make the seasonal covid-19 booster vaccination available to people under the age of 50.

The Government continues to be guided by the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) on who should be offered COVID-19 vaccinations and the JCVI keeps the evidence to support its recommendations under regular review.

On 15 July 2022, the Government accepted the JCVI’s advice that the primary aim of the COVID-19 booster vaccine programme in autumn 2022 should be to augment immunity in those who are at higher risk from COVID-19 and thereby optimise protection against severe COVID-19, specifically hospitalisation and death, over winter 2022 to 2023. This includes all adults aged 50 years old and over and individuals aged 5 to 49 years old in a clinical risk group. The clinical risk groups for COVID-19 vaccination are defined in the UK Health Security Agency’s ‘Green Book’ on vaccines and immunisation.