Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of prioritising for covid-19 vaccination NHS contractors providing critical equipment and medicine.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advises that the first priorities for the current COVID-19 vaccination programme should be the prevention of COVID-19 mortality and the protection of health and social care staff and systems.  The JCVI recommend that within this group, priority should be given to frontline staff at high risk of acquiring infection, at high individual risk of developing serious disease and at risk of transmitting infection to multiple vulnerable persons or other staff in a healthcare setting.

The Public Health England Green Book provides supportive guidance on the roles that may be considered as ‘frontline healthcare’ staff to prioritise as being at a high risk of exposure to COVID-19, or at risk of transmitting infection to multiple vulnerable persons or other staff in a healthcare environment. The guidance provides advice on what roles may be considered which includes ‘non-clinical staff in secondary or primary care/community healthcare settings’, specifically non-clinical ancillary staff who may have social contact with patients but are not directly involved in patient care. Those staff will be prioritised if they are at a high risk of exposure to COVID-19 or at risk of transmitting infection to multiple vulnerable persons or other staff.