Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether it is his policy to rollout the covid-19 vaccine to all young people aged 12 and over.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation advises that only those children at very high risk of exposure and serious outcomes, such as older children with severe neuro-disabilities that require residential care, should be offered COVID-19 vaccination. Public Health England’s Green Book also sets out that children under 16 years of age, even if they are clinically extremely vulnerable, are at low risk of serious morbidity and mortality and given the absence of safety and efficacy data on the vaccine, are not recommended for routine vaccination.

At present, there are no vaccines authorised in the United Kingdom for use in children under 16 years old. On 11 May 2021, Pfizer announced that they have submitted their clinical trials results for children aged 12 to 15 years old for consideration to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.