Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is taking to assess the safety of covid-19 vaccines for under-12s.

Any application for the use of a COVID-19 vaccine in children under the age of 12 years old will be carefully assessed and will only be approved if the vaccine meets the required standards for quality, safety and efficacy.

Following the emergency use authorisation of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in children aged between five and 11 years old by the Food and Drug Administration in October 2021, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority (MHRA) is monitoring safety data from the United States of America, international post-authorisation experience and safety data from the use of the vaccine in at-risk children in the United Kingdom. The MHRA has a robust safety surveillance strategy in place for COVID-19 vaccines, including specific paediatric safety monitoring activities.