Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation considers the potential impact of a vaccination programme on the use of antibiotics when recommending the inclusion of a vaccine in the national routine immunisation schedule.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation regularly review impact and cost-effectiveness modelling when considering inclusion of a vaccine in the national routine vaccination programme. Modelling will take all relevant costs and benefits into account, where those costs and benefits can be reasonably quantified. Where evidence is available to quantify a reduction in antibiotic prescribing following the introduction of a vaccination programme, then any associated cost-savings could be included.