Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment it has made of the potential merits of permanently expanding the free seasonal flu vaccination among 50–64 year olds that are not in a clinical risk group, beyond the 2022/23 flu season.
No decisions have yet been made in relation to whether the scope of the 2022/23 flu programme will include 50 to 64 year olds not in a clinical risk group and no formal assessment has been made of the permanent expansion of the programme to this cohort. However, the Department will continue to consider the advice of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). The JCVI follows the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s methodology and criteria to assess whether a vaccine programme can be considered to be cost effective.