UK's £5.6bn Covid jabs rollout was 'good value' for money, spending watchdog says 

Britain’s Covid vaccination programme has been widely lauded as ‘world-beating’.

And today the public spending watchdog has heaped further praise on the £5.6billion jabs rollout – adding that far fewer doses were wasted than predicted.

The National Audit Office said securing a supply of vaccines early was ‘crucial’ to their success and this helped ‘to save lives and reduce serious illness and hospitalisation’.

Today the public spending watchdog has heaped further praise on the £5.6billion jabs rollout – adding that far fewer doses were wasted than predicted (stock photo used)

The independent watchdog warned there were risks ahead for the programme, however, including staff burnout.

In a report released today, covering a period up to the end of October 2021, the NAO said wastage of about 4.7 million doses – 4 per cent of the total – had been ‘much lower than the programme initially assumed’.

It said the operation had been ‘an effective use of public money’.

The report said the programme had cost £5.6billion, out of £8.3billion available over the two years to March this year.

Doses cost £15.02 each on average, the NAO said, while the average cost of administering each jab was £25.70.

However, it warned that staff burnout could affect delivery of jabs to the remaining unvaccinated adults, of which there are 3.7million.

The report also said that vaccine uptake among some ethnic minority groups, younger people and pregnant women ‘remained substantially below the national average’.

Gareth Davies, head of the NAO, said: ‘The vaccine programme has been successful in getting early access to what were brand new Covid-19 vaccines, securing supply of them, and administering them to a large proportion of the population at unprecedented speed.

The National Audit Office said securing a supply of vaccines early was ‘crucial’ to their success and this helped ‘to save lives and reduce serious illness and hospitalisation’ (stock photo used)

‘The programme must now redouble its efforts to reach those who are not yet vaccinated while also considering what a more sustainable model will involve as it moves out of its emergency phase.’

Dame Meg Hillier, Labour chairman of the Commons public accounts committee, said the speed and uptake of the rollout had been a ‘real success’.

She said: ‘Great credit is due to all those involved, including the scientists creating the vaccines, the national bodies involved in securing the doses we needed, and all those administering the jabs.’

But she added: ‘Government needs to do more to understand how it can better reach those groups and communities where uptake was low.’