Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the impact on staff numbers of making covid-19 vaccines compulsory for NHS staff.
The Department’s impact assessment estimates of the number of workers who may remain unvaccinated against COVID-19 at the end of the 12-week grace period and are not medically exempt. For National Health Service staff, this is estimated to be 4.9% or 73,000. However, the exact behavioural response to the regulations is uncertain and is dependent on the decisions of health and care workers. We continue to encourage unvaccinated staff to make the positive choice to be vaccinated. Since the Government’s consultation in September, the latest data shows an overall net increase of NHS trust healthcare workers vaccinated with a first dose of over 75,000.