Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans his Department has for implementing a meningitis vaccination programme for older adults.

The Department has no plans to introduce a meningitis vaccination programme for older adults.

National immunisation programmes are introduced following advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), the expert body that advises the government on all immunisation matters. JCVI reviewed all available evidence and advised that immunisation against meningococcal group B should be routinely offered to infants from two months of age and immunisation against meningococcal A, C, W and Y should be routinely offered to teenagers aged around 14 years.