Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what regulations apply to the sale of vaccinations by private companies.

The sale of vaccines is regulated by the Human Medicines Regulations 2012. The regulations apply without distinction to the National Health Service and the private healthcare sector. As prescription only medicines, the general rule is that they may only be sold or supplied to an individual by or under the supervision of a pharmacist on registered pharmacy premises against a prescription written by an independent prescriber. There are some exceptions to these restrictions for example, to allow a doctor to supply directly to a patient.

The majority of vaccines are injectable which means they can only be administered by or in accordance with the directions of an independent prescriber.