Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford on 22 May (HL15599 and 15600), which innovative vaccination schedules have been introduced following the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation's advice, including when a dose has been removed from an established programme.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) is the Government’s independent expert advisory body and its advice has always previously been followed.

The United Kingdom frequently adopts innovative immunisation schedules and we regularly change the vaccine schedule following the advice of the JCVI.

The JCVI advised that a two-dose schedule for the infant pneumococcal conjugate vaccine Prevenar13 is appropriate for the UK in place of the current three-dose schedule.

The JCVI’s advice was given full consideration, taking into account the potential public health implications, such as impact on cases of pneumococcal disease, before a decision was made to implement it. The evidence shows that two doses will sustain the results we have already seen. The decision is based on the excellent effectiveness of the vaccine and years of high uptake, which has helped to provide protection to the rest of the population and has successfully controlled many types of pneumococcal disease in this country.

We are confident that the world-class disease surveillance system we have in this country means our expert committee can closely monitor the impact of this change.