No ‘planning’ done to guarantee enough doses for annual Covid-19 vaccinations, MPs warn

‘Uncertainty’ over whether there will be enough doses for yearly jabs, report says

No “planning” has been done to ensure annual vaccinations for Covid-19 can be delivered despite Boris Johnson suggesting they will be needed, MPs are warning.

There is no “guarantee” that all of the doses the UK has ordered will be approved or delivered, creating “uncertainty” over whether there will be enough for yearly jabs, their report says.

Yet the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) does not consider the issue “an urgent or critical question”, the Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was told.

Now its report calls for plans to be in place by the end of March, as well as for any need to change the prioritisation list for jabs or cope with new variants of the virus emerging.

This week, the prime minister told MPs: “I think we are going to have to get used to the idea of vaccinating and then revaccinating in the autumn, as we come to face these new variants.”

And Matt Hancock, the health secretary, hinted the hotel quarantine scheme could continue until a tweaked vaccine – to protect against new variants – is ready.

The PAC praises the government for the “world-beating” effort to get the jab to the most vulnerable people in the country, with many more vaccinations than in most countries.

It is on course to meet its target of offering a vaccine to the 15 million people in the top four priority groups – including over 70s and frontline health and care workers – by next Monday.

But there is still “much to be done” to hit the next target of getting the jab to the 17.7 million in the next five priority groups – including all over-50s – by the end of April, the report says.

“We are concerned by departments' lack of planning for the next phase of the programme and in learning the lessons from what has already been done that will be so vital to the programme's success,” it states.

The PAC also says there is a “strong case” for looking again at whether frontline key workers – who are more exposed to the virus – should be prioritised for future vaccinations.

The government has refused to say whether it will accept recommendations from the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), or make its own decisions

On the evidence given by BEIS, it says the department “does not currently consider planning for the possibility of an annual vaccination programme to be an urgent or critical question owing to the number of potential doses the UK has access to”.

But it adds: “There is no guarantee that all of the vaccines it has signed up for will be approved or delivered, creating uncertainty over whether further vaccine purchases will be needed.”