Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 19 December 2025 (HL12718), whether they will ask the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation to set up a subcommittee on dementia to assess the evidence regarding vaccination against various infections and reduced risk of dementia.

The independent departmental expert committee, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advises the Government on matters relating to vaccination and immunisation.

At this time, there are no plans to establish a JCVI sub-committee on dementia.

However, the JCVI continues to monitor emerging evidence relating to all immunisation programmes and, where appropriate, this can include evidence on a potential link between vaccination and reduced risk of dementia.

It is possible for evidence on the link between vaccination and the reduced risk of dementia to be assessed within the existing committee structure, as was the case when research studies suggesting a link between shingles vaccination and reduced dementia risk were considered by the committee last year.