Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation’s (JCVI’s) advice in November 2024 to expand eligibility for the shingles vaccination programme to include people aged 80 and over, what assessment they have made of the impact of delays in implementation on those with comorbidities who are at highest risk of severe shingles disease; what steps they are taking to prioritise protection for these high-risk individuals; and whether they will commit to implementing the JCVI advice before this winter.

Currently, adults become eligible for their shingles vaccination when they turn 65 or 70 years of age, and they remain eligible until their 79th birthday. Adults who are severely immunosuppressed, and therefore most at risk of serious illness and complications from shingles, are eligible from 18 years old and do not have an upper age limit.

The shingles vaccination programme has been in place since 2013, and therefore there will be a significant portion of adults currently aged 80 years old and over who were offered, and received, Zostavax, the previous shingles vaccine. All those who were born after 1 September 1933 would have been offered a vaccine in the programme.

In November 2024, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation provided advice to the Government on eligibility for the shingles vaccination programme. This included advice that the Government should consider expanding the shingles vaccination offer to include older adult cohorts aged 80 years old and over. The Government is carefully considering this advice as it sets the policy on who should be offered shingles vaccinations in the future.