Appointments can be booked from today for 17 and 18-year-olds currently in the last year of sixth form and students under the age of 25 who are heading to residential colleges or university this autumn for the first time.

Secretary of state for health and social care James Murray said: ‘Vaccines save lives, which is why we're offering the Meningitis B vaccine to around one million students as part of vital actions we're taking to better protect young people.'

Students in their first year of university are about seven times higher more at risk than young people of a similar age who do not go to university.

Vaccination has led to around a 75% reduction in Meningitis cases among eligible vaccinated groups. 

There have also been more clusters of MenB cases than normal this year, some of which have been bigger than expected. This includes an outbreak in Kent earlier this year which claimed two lives.

The Department of Health and Social Care and Department for Education today also launched a School-Aged Vaccination Taskforce.

It will aim to improve vaccination uptake across school-aged vaccination programmes including through school and college vaccination sessions.

The taskforce will include health and education experts, ministers from both departments and representatives from NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency.