Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of using the free flu jab list to identify people eligible for priority access to the covid-19 booster jab.

The clinical risk groups for influenza were initially considered as a potential way to identify and prioritise individuals at risk of COVID-19 when recommendations for phase one of the vaccination programme were developed.

However, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation’s advice for the COVID-19 booster vaccine programme recommended offering vaccination to priority groups one to nine in phase one of the vaccination programme, as they received their primary course approximately six months ago.