'The Committee recognises arguments made by stakeholders on the issue of equality of access and that there are additional clinical benefits that could be achieved in males with a gender neutral programme. The Committee therefore wishes to refer the issue of equality of access to the Department of Health for consideration.'

In other words, Cabinet Secretary, they want you to make the decision. I think the idea that this could be too expensive just doesn't stand up to scrutiny. The estimated cost of extending the programme to boys is around £0.5 million a year. We would only need to prevent seven or eight cases of cancer each year, which the introduction of this vaccine most certainly would, to recoup this cost. In fact, the only reason the cost-effectiveness argument has been used is based on the idea that we can get the benefits of the vaccine on the cheap through assuming this herd immunity based on a girls-only programme. As I hope I've outlined, this is flawed, and I think the Government should change its mind now.