Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure an adequate (a) supply and (b) distribution of the flu vaccine in (i) Bedfordshire and (ii) East of England, in light of the emergence of the H3N2 “subclade K” virus.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The supply and distribution of flu vaccines for the majority of NHS England’s flu programme is managed by individual providers. NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) work with the pharmaceutical sector to support adequate supply, understand provider ordering, and signpost providers to the continued availability of stock towards the end of the season.
There is currently good availability of flu vaccines in Bedfordshire, Luton, and Milton Keynes. Local practices and pharmacies have not reported any significant disruption to supply or distribution. NHS England regional teams monitor availability of appointments and stock levels, and are working with community pharmacies, general practices, and other providers to identify and escalate any providers that need further support with supply, which the NHS England Regional Vaccination Operations Cell will assist with.
For the children’s flu programme, the UKHSA centrally procures and manages the supply of all vaccines to ensure that eligible children aged under 18 years old who present for vaccination can be offered an appropriate vaccine. Supply remains available throughout the entire flu season. Flu vaccines for children are made available to order via the UKHSA’s online ordering platform ImmForm. General practices are able to place weekly orders and receive weekly deliveries of children’s flu vaccines from the UKHSA. School immunisation teams are able to place orders and receive deliveries up to twice per week.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of (a) women and (b) men eligible for NHS health checks have had those checks in the last year, broken down by parliamentary constituency in the East of England.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold data on NHS Health Checks broken down by sex or by parliamentary constituencies. Local authorities, who are responsible for commissioning the NHS Health Check, may hold this information locally.
The NHS Health Check should be offered once every five years to eligible people, which means if everyone expected was offered a check and completed one, we would expect 20% of the total eligible population to receive a check each year.
The following table shows the proportion of the total five-year eligible population who had an NHS Health Check in each local authority in the East of England in 2024-2025:
Area | Percentage of the total five-year eligible population who received an NHS Health Check in the year 2024/25 |
England | 9.0 |
East of England | 9.4 |
Cambridgeshire | 13.2 |
Luton | 11.9 |
Essex | 11.4 |
Norfolk | 11.0 |
Southend-on-Sea | 10.5 |
Thurrock | 8.8 |
Peterborough | 7.8 |
Hertfordshire | 7.2 |
Suffolk | 6.0 |
Central Bedfordshire | 5.4 |
Bedford | 5.3 |
To improve access to the programme we are piloting an online NHS Health Check so that people can undertake a check at a time and place convenient to them.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the readiness of integrated care boards to assume responsibility for commissioning vaccination and immunisation services.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Leicester East on 29 September 2025 to Question 76374.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve childhood vaccination coverage rates in (a) Bedfordshire, (b) the East of England and (c) the UK.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Together with the National Health Service and UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), we are taking action to improve uptake of childhood immunisation rates in Bedfordshire, the East of England and across England.
We have set out actions to improve uptake across England in our 10-Year Health Plan as well as our strategy for Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life. Putting these plans into action, we have recently launched a campaign to promote awareness and confidence in vaccination. This will run throughout the year. We are also exploring new ways of delivering vaccinations including health visits and community pharmacy, with pilots for administering vaccinations as part of health visits starting from January 2026. We are also working with families and schools to improve the consent process to help children get vaccines at school and, during 2026-27, we will give parents access to their child’s vaccination health record via the My Vaccines hub on the NHS App.
Regions and local areas are taking tailored and targeted action to improve immunisation rates and ensure that vaccination services best meet the diverse needs of their local populations.
In the East of England, further measures include a trailblazing community and school age immunisation service in which the school vaccination provider also delivers catch-up in community clinics for all childhood vaccines; a dedicated call / recall telephone call centre focussed on measles, mumps and rubella vaccines; and regular training sessions for primary care nurses as well as a local enquiries inbox.
In Bedford and Central Bedfordshire, more local activity includes a new community vaccinations hub at Bury Park, Luton; a new initiative at Bedfordshire Hospitals Foundation Trusts to invite children attending hospital appointments for vaccination if needed; work with specialist health inclusion health visitor teams to improve uptake in the Gypsy Roma Traveller community; home visits for some families who require vaccines delivered at home; work with SEND schools where pupils may have missed childhood vaccinations; and monthly monitoring of individual GP practice uptake rate with targeted support to practices with lower uptake.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of asking the National Screening Committee’s to review the evidence on risk-stratified screening.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) already consider risk stratification in screening programmes.
Last year the National Health Service moved from annual diabetic retinopathy testing for all people over 12 years of age with diabetes, to every two years for lower risk individuals. This followed a UK NSC recommendation.
This year, the NHS adopted the UK NSC’s recommendation to move from age-based screening intervals in the cervical screening programme to risk-based intervals. Women with a positive HPV test (high-risk) are screened annually while the general population of women ages 25 – 64 will be screened every five years. The UK NSC are also working with Australian researchers to determine whether HPV vaccination status should be a risk stratification screening consideration.
The UK NSC is considering risk stratification in breast screening. Work is underway with researchers to look at whether women with denser breasts should have a different screening approach, and consideration is being given to whether certain genetic mutations may require further stratification in the breast screening programme.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the cost to his Department of extreme weather related to climate change since 1 January 2020.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK Health Security Agency’s (UKHSA) Health Effects of Climate Change report estimated that heat-related mortality from climate change and related socio-economic change in England could cost approximately £6.8 billion per year in the 2020s, rising to £14.7 billion per year in the 2050s.
The Department is supporting the improvement of National Health Service sites in order to reduce these impacts by investing £30 billion over the next five years in maintenance and repair, alongside £5 billion which has been allocated specifically to address the most critical building issues.
For estimating future costs of extreme weather, decisions on key Government spending are subject to clear requirements through the Green Book. This includes supplementary guidance which covers the impacts of climate change, and which is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/green-book-supplementary-guidance-environment
This ensures that policies, programmes, and projects are resilient to the effects and future costs of climate change, and that such effects are being taken fully into account when appraising policy options.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of allowing NHS trusts to reduce mileage reimbursement to incentivise use of pool vehicles.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Whilst no specific assessment has been made, the NHS Staff Council, which has responsibility for maintaining the Agenda for Change system of pay and terms and conditions, is currently negotiating a new mechanism that will assess the costs of motoring to determine mileage reimbursement rates. Further updates from the NHS Staff Council’s work will be made in due course.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions his Department has had with Integrated Care Boards on (a) increasing vaccination rates for and (b) prevention of measles.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) declared a national standard incident response for measles on 10 July 2025 to oversee the risk assessment and public health response to the increase of measles cases in England and coordinate the multi-agency input to the response nationally with the aim of limiting further spread. The Department, UKHSA and the National Health Service are already working with local partners to undertake community and stakeholder engagement to raise awareness that measles is circulating, promote the importance of measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination and target catch-up efforts at key under vaccinated communities and in a range of settings.
NHS England is working with local health teams, including integrated care boards, to monitor reported measle cases, provide advice and support local communities to be aware of action they can take to protect themselves, including getting vaccinated.
Building on the MMR coverage gains achieved in 2023/24, NHS England continues to deliver national and regional improvement plans that include activities to strengthen the routine vaccination offer and to address inequalities by supporting MMR catch up vaccination by school age vaccination services in schools and community settings, for example, summer ‘catch up’ immunisation clinics are being stood up in some of the areas of England with the lowest MMR uptake including Liverpool, Knowsley, Sefton and St Helens. In London, childhood vaccination clinics have been stood up in outbreak areas including targeted community clinics, pharmacies offering MMR and we are working with school immunisation services to deliver some MMR catch up in schools once term starts.
Additional steps are being taken which will strengthen efforts to reduce the risk of future measles outbreaks, including bringing forward MMR vaccination for children so they are protected sooner. There are also plans to explore new ways of delivering vaccinations such as greater use of community pharmacies and during at health visits. Further to this, a new national communications and marketing campaign will kick off in August 2025 with a brand-new programme of always on activity to reach parents, pregnant women and multicultural audiences and encourage uptake of MMR as well as other vaccinations.
It is vitally important that everyone takes up the vaccinations they are entitled to, for themselves, their families, and wider society.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to (a) update and (b) improve NHS IT systems.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are investing more than £2 billion in National Health Service technology and digital to run essential services and drive NHS productivity improvements.
In June 2023, NHS England agreed a Health Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which is a strategic agreement between the NHS and Microsoft and underpins the national Microsoft licensing framework for NHS organisations. It delivers significant discounts and standardised licensing across the NHS and enables access to services.
Security and compliance are significantly strengthened through national access to Microsoft Defender, Office 365 security tools, and integration with the NHS Cyber Security Operations Centre. These tools standardise threat detection, data protection, and governance across the system, ensuring a consistent and elevated security posture. The MOU also supports a national IT operating model with service desks operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week, centralised incident management, and streamlined onboarding.
Operationally, the MOU delivers cost savings by eliminating redundant local contracts and enabling licence reconfiguration. It also positions the NHS for future innovation, with early access to artificial intelligence tools like Microsoft Copilot already embedded in the agreement. This ensures NHS organisations can scale digital transformation efforts while maintaining alignment with national strategy and funding models.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of integrated care board reconfigurations on patient access to healthcare services.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has asked integrated care boards (ICBs) to act primarily as strategic commissioners of health and care services and to reduce the duplication of responsibilities within their structure, with the expectation of achieving a reduction in their running cost allowance. NHS England provided additional guidance to ICBs, National Health Service trusts, and NHS foundation trusts in a letter on 1 April 2025. This letter is available at the following:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/working-together-in-2025-26-to-lay-the-foundations-for-reform/
These changes will form part of a package of measures, including the forthcoming 10-Year Health Plan, that positively impact on patient care and safety by driving quality of care, productivity, and innovation in the NHS. ICBs will continue to deliver their statutory responsibilities and NHS England’s transformation team will continue to work with ICBs to develop their plans and to ensure implementation of the changes, whilst maintaining a focus on patient safety.