Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 14 October 2022 to Question 59515 on Monkeypox: Vaccination, what assessment the Government made of the level of (a) risk and (b) UK preparedness for a potential increase in the rate of Monkeypox infections prior to the decision not to procure additional doses of the vaccine for that disease.

The UK Health Security Agency continually assesses the level of risk to the United Kingdom from monkeypox infections. Risk assessments published on 23 September 2022 indicated an approximately flat daily growth rate at low levels of incidence; approximately stable geography within England; no reported deaths in the UK; and a small number of deaths reported globally. The risk assessment of 23 September is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/monkeypox-outbreak-technical-briefings/investigation-into-monkeypox-outbreak-in-england-technical-briefing-8#part-1-risk-assessment-as-of-23-september-2022

We have procured sufficient stock to deliver the vaccination strategy in full.