Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of allowing GPs to prescribe a covid-19 booster vaccination to vulnerable patients not specifically listed as being in a clinical risk group.

The independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advises Government health departments on immunisations and the prevention of infectious disease. On 8 August 2023, the Government accepted advice from the JCVI on who should be offered vaccination in autumn 2023. This includes residents and staff in a care home for older adults, all adults aged 65 years old and over, persons aged six months to 64 years old in a clinical risk group, frontline health and social care workers, persons aged 12 to 64 years old who are household contacts and persons aged 16 to 64 years old who are carers.

The clinical risk groups for COVID-19 vaccination are defined in the UK Health Security Agency’s ‘Green Book’ on vaccines and immunisation Chapter 14a tables 3 and 4. However, as stated in the Green Book, the examples of eligible conditions in these tables are not exhaustive. Within these broad groups, the prescriber may need to apply clinical judgment to consider the risk of COVID-19 exacerbating any underlying condition that a patient may have, as well as the risk of serious illness from COVID-19 itself. The fact that an individual condition is not explicitly cited in the Green Book should therefore not prevent vaccination being offered where clinically appropriate.