PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
(23 April 2026)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment the Department has made of inequalities in access to meningococcal group B vaccination for teenagers and young adults who are not eligible for NHS-funded vaccination, including where vaccination is available only through private purchase.

Asked by:
Rosie Duffield (Independent)

My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has asked the Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisation (JCVI) to re-examine eligibility for meningitis vaccines to assess, for example, an expanded offer to older children and/or young adults.

The JCVI will provide updated advice to the Department this summer around whether, and to what extent, a vaccine programme for older children and/or young adults would be clinically effective as well as an assessment of the cost effectiveness of such a vaccination programme.

The Department has not made an assessment about inequalities in access to meningococcal group B vaccination for teenagers and young adults who are not eligible for National Health Service funded vaccination, as private vaccinations are not within its remit.

Answered by:
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