Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the clinical, operational, procurement and supply-side barriers to expanding the shingles vaccination programme to adults aged 80 and over.

The Government is considering the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation’s advice on shingles vaccinations, examining factors including clinical benefits, affordability and cost effectiveness.

No decision has yet been taken on any expansion of the existing shingles vaccination programme to include adults aged 80 years old or over.

For any routine vaccination programme which the Government decides to implement, efforts to introduce or expand the programme are determined by factors including availability of supply, contractual arrangement on supply, affordability, workforce capacity and impact on other programmes.