Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of recognising people who have severe learning disabilities as being clinically vulnerable for the purposes of the eligibility criteria for covid-19 booster jabs.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) is the independent body made up of scientific and clinical experts who advise Government on which authorised vaccines the United Kingdom should use and which groups in the population should be offered initial or further doses of a particular vaccine.

The primary aim of the COVID-19 vaccination programme continues to be the prevention of severe disease, such as hospitalisation and mortality, arising from COVID-19. The JCVI identified at the start of the programme a number of groups in the population at high clinical risk of severe outcomes from COVID-19. One of these clinical risk groups covers those with chronic neurological disease. This includes all those with severe learning difficulties. The full list of conditions covered is defined in tables two and four of the UK Health Security Agency guide to vaccinators known as the Green Book.

For each new COVID-19 booster campaign the JCVI considers which groups should be recommended for a further booster. For the current spring campaign, the JCVI has recommended boosters were needed only for those at the very highest risk of serious outcomes. This covered those in care homes for older people, all those aged 75 years old or over and all those aged 5 or over who are immunosuppressed. The JCVI has advised that there should be a further booster programme in autumn 2023 for those at higher risk of severe COVID-19. Advice from the JCVI on which risk groups are recommended for a booster dose in autumn 2023 is expected ahead of autumn.