Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is planning to launch a mass vaccination programme in winter 2020 in response to the covid-19 outbreak; and whether parish councils should make plans to use village halls as vaccination centres.

The Department along with NHS England and NHS Improvement and Public Health England (PHE) are currently planning for the delivery of a successful COVID-19 vaccine if one becomes available. The extent to which this is rolled out, is highly dependent on availability and the type of vaccine. In addition, NHS England and NHS Improvement are currently developing plans for the delivering of the seasonal flu vaccination programme. This will include new models for delivery. Dependent on the amount of vaccine which becomes available, it is likely that we will need to mobilise additional delivery arrangements and the workforce required to manage the volume of vaccinations. This could require a mass vaccination programme.

The Vaccines Taskforce, the Department, PHE, NHS England and NHS Improvement are coordinating the planning for settings individuals can be safely vaccinated within, as well as who within the workforce will be able to provide vaccinations against COVID-19.