Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the finding by Mencap that 80 per cent of deaths of people with a learning disability in the week ending 22 January 2021 were related to covid-19, if he will include people with mild to moderate learning disabilities in the first phase of covid-19 vaccinations; and whether he (a) has directed or (b) plans to direct the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation to make an assessment of the potential effects of (i) including and (ii) excluding people with mild to moderate learning disabilities from the first vaccination phase.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) reviewed data on mortality from COVID-19 in coming to its recommendation, which included the available data on those with learning disabilities. As a result, individuals with severe and profound learning disabilities and younger adults with learning disabilities living in residential and care homes are prioritised for a vaccination in group six. Adults with Down’s syndrome were included in the clinically extremely vulnerable cohort and have therefore been included within priority group four.

Everyone on their general practitioner’s Learning Disability Register will be vaccinated as part of priority group six in phase one.