A long-awaited report into how the government makes decisions about which vaccines to fund has been published. It follows calls for greater transparency about why a vaccine to protect children against meningitis B was not made more widely available.
Two-year-old Faye Burdett died in 2016 - she was too old to have the vaccine. An 820,000-signature petition calling for all children to be vaccinated was then submitted, - but the idea was rejected as "not cost effective".
One of the recommendations in the report is lowering the cost-effectiveness threshold for immunisation, potentially making it harder for new vaccines to be approved at current prices.
Health Minister Steven Brine was due to face questions from MPs this Tuesday over why the report into the cost-effectiveness of immunisations - promised by the end of 2016 - still had not been published.
Commenting on the publication, Helen Jones, who chairs the Petitions Committee, said: "Since 2016, the Petitions and Health Committees have been urging the government to publish this report - so we are pleased that it has finally done so.
"It is, however, regrettable that the government has taken so long to act, when decisions about vaccines could save children's lives. Charities and campaigners, including families who have lost children to meningitis, have been left waiting for this report for far too long."
A consultation will now run until 21 May 2018. Meningitis Research Foundation chief executive Vinny Smith, said: "We are taking time to review the report in full but are concerned that some recommendations would be detrimental to future vaccines and could reduce our chances of preventing serious and fatal illnesses."
