Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to reduce (a) disposal rates of and (b) the number of missed appointments for covid-19 vaccines.

No vaccine should be wasted. All vaccination centres should have a backup list of people in the eligible cohorts who can be called in case doses would be wasted. If no members of the currently vaccinated cohorts are available, it is recommended that members of the next priority cohorts be vaccinated. In the extremely exceptional case where this is not possible, locally available people can be vaccinated based on clinical judgement.

To maximise the likelihood that appointments will be attended, the National Booking Service is available for members of the public to book at convenient times and locations.