Select committee: Health and Social Care Committee
Conclusion 2
Tenth Report - Prevention in health and social care: vaccination
Published 27 Jul 2023
Paragraph 17
Addressed to Department of Health and Social Care
Health and Social Care Committee Prevention in health and social care All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
Vaccination is the one of the greatest success stories when it comes to preventing infection. Its impact is transformative. This makes it all the more concerning that England did not reach the 95% target for any routine childhood immunisations in 2021/22. The Government and NHS England should constantly strive to maximise the fantastic asset that vaccination represents and to ensure that nobody is excluded from the benefits that it can bring. It is unacceptable that there are people who are unable to take advantage of the important protection that vaccination offers due to practical challenges of time and location that can and must be addressed.
From: Health and Social Care Committee, Tenth Report - Prevention in health and social care: vaccination (HC 1764), paragraph 17, 27 July 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 20 October 2023 (deadline 27 September 2023).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government responds to each of the Committee's five recommendations, setting out ongoing work and consultations, and states it is committed to improving vaccination uptake and regaining the UK's position as a global leader in clinical trials.
- On widening the vaccination workforce, the Government says it is "reviewing" the use of unregistered professionals, and a consultation launched on 7 August 2023 (closed 18 September 2023) includes an option for a time limited amendment, covering until April 2026, to regulation 247A.
- On NHS England's vaccination and immunisation delivery strategy, it says "latest thinking" focuses on empowering system leaders to plan local services, and that "the strategy will be published later in 2023".
- On the O'Shaughnessy review of commercial clinical trials, it has welcomed all recommendations "in principle" and "will consider" delivery of all of them, with "an implementation update" to be provided "in the autumn".
- On the JCVI and MHRA, it describes the UK system for reviewing new immunisation products as "effective and responsive" and notes £10 million over two years announced for the MHRA at Spring Budget.