Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to paragraph 54 of the minutes of the meeting of 4 June 2014 of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, over what period of time Public Health England intends to revise the cost effectiveness model of pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine to include the latest epidemiological data on pneumococcal disease in the UK; and if he will make a statement.

Public Health England (PHE) will review modelling undertaken on the impact and cost-effectiveness of the Pneumococcal Polysaccharide Vaccine (PPV) programme in over-65 year olds using the latest epidemiological data on invasive pneumococcal disease in the United Kingdom. PHE will report its findings to the Pneumococcal Sub-committee of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). It is anticipated that the Pneumococcal Sub-committee will meet for the first time in spring 2015.

At this meeting of the Pneumococcal Sub-committee members will review information including epidemiological data and PHE’s report on PPV impact and cost-effectiveness. Should all the required data be available to the Sub-committee, and subject to the requirement for additional meetings and, if required, additional modelling, it is anticipated that it will report to the JCVI main committee. The JCVI will form advice at the October 2015 meeting. The minutes of this meeting will be published in winter 2015.