Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to prioritise funeral directors and staff for the covid-19 vaccine alongside health and care home staff.

The Green Book Immunisation Against Infections Disease chapter on COVID-19, states that hospital-based laboratory and mortuary staff who frequently handle COVID-19 or collect or handle potentially infected specimens, including respiratory, gastrointestinal and blood specimens should be eligible for COVID-19 vaccination as they may also have social contact with patients. This may also include cleaners, porters, secretaries and receptionists in laboratories. Frontline funeral operatives and mortuary technicians/embalmers are both at risk of exposure and likely to spend a considerable amount of time in care homes and hospital settings where they may also expose multiple patients, therefore they should also be eligible for vaccination.