Baroness Merron (Lab)

My Lords, I am most grateful to noble Lords for participating in this debate. I appreciate the welcome for these measures and the acknowledgement of their importance from the Opposition Front Bench and the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett. I will turn to some of the questions. I will, of course, be very pleased to write to noble Lords on anything I am unable to answer. The noble Baroness, Lady Bennett, raised the issue of provision of Covid-19 vaccinations and remarked that Covid is still very much with us; I am not quoting her directly but that is what I took from what she said. In answer to that, this is a big change, but it is now a relatively mild disease—I stress relatively—for, I stress again, most people. It can still be unpleasant, but I am glad to say that the rates of hospitalisation and death have reduced significantly since the pandemic. These proposals, as I mentioned in my opening remarks, are very much about building on the successes that we saw in the Covid-19 and the flu vaccination programmes. As I mentioned, they are about taking that best practice and ensuring that we have a vaccination system in the future. The noble Baroness also asked about private vaccination services. It is still the case, of course, that the NHS offer of vaccination is there for all those who are at higher risk of serious outcomes; there are a number of such people and we want to ensure they are properly looked after. Private provision is also available, as the noble Baroness said, as with some other vaccines. The availability and price of any vaccines provided through the private market is a matter for the private sector and not something that we seek to regulate. On travel vaccines, as I am sure the noble Baroness is aware, a number of such vaccines are available free on the NHS through GP surgeries. These are against polio, typhoid, hepatitis A and cholera. These vaccines are free because they protect the public against those diseases that are thought to carry the greatest risk if they were to be brought into this country.