Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he will know the efficacy of vaccines against the omicron variant of covid-19.

The UK Health Security Agency will evaluate the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines against the Omicron variant as soon as sufficient cases have arisen through pillar 2 community testing. Generally, this is approximately 500 cases. If an outbreak occurs in a closed setting, outbreak vaccine effectiveness investigations may be possible.

International evidence on vaccine effectiveness may also emerge at an earlier date, if the number of cases is greater overseas.