Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the medical trials testing the efficacy and safety of the covid-19 vaccine in children and teenagers are planned to report their results.

Through the joint call for COVID-19 research from the National Institute for Health Research and UK Research and Innovation, we have awarded over £2 million towards ‘nCoV: Rapid Clinical Development of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19’. This research project aims to demonstrate vaccine safety and immunogenicity in adults, older adults, and children, and is scheduled to finish in September 2021. A phase II study to determine safety and immunogenicity in 300 children and adolescents aged between 6 and 17 years old was also approved as a priority Urgent Public Health COVID-19 study in February 2021 and is due to finish in May 2021.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) continues to review the data on COVID-19 vaccines. Once data on the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines in adolescents and younger children becomes available, these will be considered by the JCVI to inform deliberations on vaccination in these age groups.