Respiratory Syncytial Virus: Vaccination Programme

Lord Kamall Excerpts

Tuesday 9th September 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Ritchie of Downpatrick, for securing this debate today on RSV, particularly on vaccines for children. I pay tribute to her for continuously raising awareness of RSV. As she reminded me, when I was a Minister she raised it a number of times and continues to raise it. That shows how important it is and the vital role she plays.

As we know, RSV, alongside flu and Covid, is a leading cause of serious respiratory illnesses. Before the rollout of the vaccination programme, it was responsible for more than 10,000 hospital admissions and 4,000 deaths each year among adults aged over 75. The noble Baroness reminded us that it poses a danger in early childhood, with, as other noble Lords have said, over 30,000 hospitalisations and up to 30 deaths each year among children under five. One of the reasons that children are especially at risk is due to their developing smaller airways, which makes them particularly susceptible to bronchiolitis, a condition in which the lungs become inflamed during the fight against infection. We also know that RSV is perhaps more widespread than is commonly known and can seriously affect the most vulnerable people in our society.

I welcome the opportunity that this debate allows us in taking the time to speak about RSV and to ask the Government about the steps they are taking to prevent it as much as possible and to treat it. The previous and current Governments and the many health professionals are to be congratulated on the fact that RSV vaccine coverage has been rising steadily. It is good news that, among eligible older adults in England, the vaccine uptake has risen from 23% in September 2024 to around 63% by the end of June 2025. Similarly, as others have said, maternal vaccination has followed a similar trajectory, so that among mothers who gave birth in March 2025, 55% have been vaccinated. I know noble Lords have given out various statistics today.

The challenge now, as the noble Baroness has identified, is how to increase this coverage further. We know that the vaccination works; a recent study, looking at data from 14 hospitals in England up to March 2025, found that vaccination reduced the chances of hospital admissions with RSV infection by 82%. It is important that we repeat some of these statistics so people recognise that vaccines work. More relevant to today’s debate is that the estimated reduction in RSV risk was 58% for infants whose mothers were vaccinated at any time before delivery. It is sometimes easy to quote statistics and figures and see who has the best or the more up-to-date statistics, but sometimes we forget the human element. It is clear that taking the RSV vaccine protects us, our friends and our loved ones from harm and hospitalisation, and we should not forget that.

Despite that good news, though, as with other conditions, there are substantial disparities in how effective these measures have been in the population data, as my noble friend Lord Mott, the noble Lord, Lord Rennard, and indeed the noble Baroness, Lady Ritchie, said. As we have seen, recent data from the UKHSA showed that the uptake of the RSV vaccine for pregnant women in London was about 44%, compared to a figure of 65% in the south-west. We have heard from other noble Lords that members of the “Black or Black British—Caribbean” ethnic community are substantially less likely to be vaccinated than the highest uptake. Interestingly, ethnically Chinese people are the most vaccinated group, but in the “Black or Black British—Caribbean” cohort the coverage reported by the UKHSA earlier this year was only 28%.

We saw that the uptake of RSV vaccine for pregnant women in some of the UK’s largest ethnic groups is also quite low, with white British people at 62% and British Indian people at 56%. This data shows that, while many people have been vaccinated against RSV and the numbers have certainly increased, there are many communities where vaccination levels remain low. Clearly more needs to be done.

When I met the Caribbean and African Health Network last week, it explained some of the factors behind vaccine hesitancy within their communities. Sometimes it stems from a lack of trust of the organisations promoting vaccines, as well as a lack of culturally and linguistically appropriate information. We also know, as other noble Lords have said, about misinformation about the harms that could be caused by vaccines, spread via social media but also by politicians in some parts of the political spectrum.

Noble Lords will recall that we had to tackle vaccine hesitancy under the Covid programme. We found that asking local community organisations—people in the communities, especially faith communities, who knew the people we were trying to reach—to take the lead helped to build trust, but it did not always solve the problem. It is very easy to point to one success story. Indeed, in at least one case, there were certain churches that were actually discouraging their congregations from being vaccinated. That just shows how granular we have to be in reaching those communities and trying to understand some of those barriers.

So, while noble Lords may extol the benefits of vaccination programmes for RSV, Covid, HPV and MMR, there is clearly more work to be done in reaching out to individuals in the communities where uptake is low. We need to understand their concerns and the barriers that they feel they face, and we need to understand how we can tap into the power of trusted local community organisations to ensure that as many people as possible benefit from RSV and other vaccines.

The noble Baroness, Lady Ritchie of Downpatrick, stressed the importance of vaccinating infants, but we need to reach the children via their parents and the communities in which they live. I am sure that noble Lords across the House share the ambition to break down barriers of access and build trust in communities, and to make sure more people are protected against RSV.

When we returned after the short break, the Minister said she missed a number of questions from noble Lords across the House, so, as in any debate, I want to make sure that I help her in that respect. I have questions but, if the Minister cannot answer now, perhaps she will write to us. What specific steps are her department and organisations such as the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities and the UKHSA taking to address these disparities in RSV vaccine uptake, not only regionally but also ethnically? What initiatives are there to increase uptake in those ethnic communities where vaccination levels are particularly low? What has worked and what has not?

Is the Minister able to share some good stories where specific programmes to tackle vaccine hesitancy have actually showed some success? How can that best practice be rolled out to other communities in other parts of the country? I think the noble Baroness, Lady Ritchie of Downpatrick, asked about disaggregated data—what disaggregated data is available on RSV vaccine uptake? If it is not yet available, will the Minister look at or perhaps commit to publishing regular disaggregated data on RSV vaccine uptake by region, ethnicity and socioeconomic group so that Parliament and the public can track progress in ensuring equity of access? I am sure the noble Baroness, Lady Ritchie of Downpatrick, would appreciate such disaggregated data, as all noble Lords would.

I once again thank the noble Baroness, Lady Ritchie of Downpatrick, for securing this debate today and for the opportunity it has afforded the full Benches to discuss this important issue. Your Lordships recognise that the Minister takes this issue seriously, so we look forward to the responses.