Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 5 February (HL13800), what assessment they have made of whether a health-systems focus on the benefits of vaccines and immunisations may disadvantage prevention within the health technology appraisals process.

The cost-effectiveness methodology used by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) ensures that decisions are objective, consistent, and based on high-quality data on health benefits and costs. This approach is not understood to disadvantage vaccinations and immunisations as a form of prevention when compared with treatments, therapeutic health measures, or other forms of prevention.

This is because, similar to the JCVI, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence also applies a health‑sector perspective when appraising preventative and treatment interventions. Beyond vaccines, many other health interventions can generate wider societal or economic benefits, and so applying an appraisal approach across the health system which is consistently focused on health benefits does not uniquely disadvantage vaccinations or immunisations.