The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI)

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI)is an independent expert advisory committee that advises United Kingdom health departments on immunisation, making recommendations concerning vaccination schedules and vaccine safety. It has a statutory role in England and Wales, and health departments in Scotland and Northern Ireland may choose to accept its advice.

History

The committee was established in 1963, having been until then an advisory board for polio immunisation. It gained statutory status as the Standing Advisory Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, a non-departmental public body advising the Secretary of State for Social Services and the Secretary of State for Wales, under the National Health Service (Standing Advisory Committees) Order 1981.

Since the devolution of government powers to Wales, the JCVI continues to advise Welsh ministers. For England, the Health Protection (Vaccination) Regulations 2009 require the Secretary of State for Health to implement the committee's recommendations regarding national immunisation programmes. The committee has no statutory role in Scotland or Northern Ireland, although the Scottish Parliament takes JCVI advice because it has not formed an alternative body. In 2015 a petition was presented to the Scottish Parliament to depart from JCVI advice because the petitioner felt that the chair of the JCVI was not observing the Nolan Principles. Petitioner had contacted Nicola Sturgeon during her time as Health Minister, and nine years later had decided to petition as a last resort for his proposal to form a body "similar if not the same as Norway's model".

Following the government's review of public bodies that completed in 2012, the JCVI was reconstituted as a departmental expert committee, although its statutory status under the 1981 order continues.