Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 20 April 2021 to Question 179661 on Coronavirus: Vaccination, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of prioritising 17-year-old students planning to start university in September 2021 to receive their first covid-19 vaccine so that those students will be able to be in receipt of two covid-19 vaccinations prior to the start of the 2021-22 academic year.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation is currently examining the evidence and the relative risks and benefits of routinely vaccinating children and young people against COVID-19 and will provide advice to the Department in due course. This will include consideration of those aged 16 to 17 years old.