Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the readiness of integrated care boards to assume responsibility for commissioning vaccination and immunisation services from April 2026.

The Government’s 10-Year Health Plan reaffirmed the importance of work to establish integrated care boards (ICBs) as ‘strategic commissioners of local health services, responsible for all but the most specialised commissioning’.

In preparation for this, the NHS Executive commissioned a review of NHS England’s direct commissioning functions to make recommendations on the future arrangements for discharging these functions in light of the planned integration of NHS England into a restructured Department of Health and Social Care.

The review, which has now been agreed, proposes transferring commissioning responsibility for suitable specialised services, vaccination and screening services, and health and justice services to ICBs. It is proposed that this transfer will take place, alongside the implementation of changes to legislation, in April 2027.

Our expectation is that during 2026/27, ICBs will take a more central role in shaping these services. This will be achieved through closer collaboration and partnership with NHS England, as the accountable organisation, and will build on the strong joint working arrangements already in place this year for delegated specialised services. A development programme and safe transfer checklist will, alongside this closer working, help to ensure that ICBs are ready to take on their new responsibilities from April 2027.