Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to include people who are immunocompromised in clinical trials for vaccines.

The Department funds research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and the NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including vaccines and immunosuppression. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made based on the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality.

The NIHR has recently commissioned the new STRAVINSKY study with £2.8 million of funding which will involve 3000 immunocompromised participants over two years looking at which immunosuppressed people remain at greatest risk of severe COVID-19 infection after vaccinations. The UK Research and Innovation, Vaccines Taskforce and NIHR have also together funded OCTAVE and OCTAVE-DUO which examine the immune response to COVID-19 vaccines and durability of this protection in patients who are immunosuppressed.