Asked by: Maggie Throup (Conservative - Erewash)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will ringfence budgets to promote vaccine uptake for (a) flu and (b) covid-19 for the 2023/24 winter season.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
It is vitally important that everyone takes up the vaccinations to which they are entitled; for themselves, their families and wider society. The Department continues to use the best available evidence to demonstrate the health benefits of vaccinations at both a personal and population level, and highlights these messages through regular media, stakeholder and social media engagement. The Department also works closely with both NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency to develop vaccination guides and patient facing consent resources to demonstrate the benefits of vaccinations for all, as well as ensuring that reputable sources such as NHS.UK or GOV.UK are prominent and readily signposted.
A paid for campaign to promote uptake of seasonal flu and COVID-19 booster vaccinations for this season is in development, due to launch in early November 2023.
Asked by: Maggie Throup (Conservative - Erewash)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to publish data on the uptake of the shingles national immunisation programme for immunocompromised individuals; and what steps he plans to take to monitor the uptake of shingles vaccinations among immunocompromised people.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The UK Health Security Agency collects data on shingles vaccine uptake including immunocompromised individuals. This data collection has been in place since the start of the programme in September 2021. Data will be published subject to quality validation processes.
A plan is in place to collect data to monitor the uptake in new cohorts who will be eligible for Shingrix from 1 September 2023, with the intention to publish this data in February 2024.
Asked by: Maggie Throup (Conservative - Erewash)
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 impact of changing eligible age cohorts for annual flu vaccination on the uptake of (a) influenza and (b) covid-19 vaccines.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
Vaccine uptake rates are considered in the planning for future vaccination programmes. However, no assessment has been made of the potential impacts of changes to the eligibility criteria for flu and COVID-19 vaccines on vaccine uptake rates. This is because the primary aim of the COVID-19 and flu vaccination programme continues to be the prevention of severe disease (hospitalisation and mortality) and vaccination is therefore offered to those at greatest risk of serious disease.
Asked by: Maggie Throup (Conservative - Erewash)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether people in the 50 to 64 age cohort will o be included for vaccination in the 2023/24 winter season.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The Department is guided by the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) on the approach to the immunisation programmes in England. Details about the flu vaccination programme for 2023/24, including which groups will be eligible for a free vaccine and the vaccines that will be reimbursable to National Health Service providers, were published on 25 May 2023. The groups eligible for a free flu vaccine for the 2023 to 2024 season include those aged 65 years and over and those aged six months to under 65 years in clinical risk groups.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, eligibility for the influenza programme was temporarily extended to include all adults aged between 50 and 64 years of age to protect the population from the potential threat of cocirculation of COVID-19 and influenza and alleviate pressure on the NHS. In the JCVI’s advice for the 2023/24 programme published in November 2022, it stated that whilst there would be a health benefit in vaccinating low risk 50–64-year-olds, it is uncertain whether this would be cost effective and that the overall priority should be to extend the childhood programme in secondary schools as this would be more cost effective and likely to have a greater impact on morbidity and mortality compared with vaccinating 50-64 year olds. An expansion of the flu programme to include secondary school-aged children was announced on 4 July 2023.
Asked by: Maggie Throup (Conservative - Erewash)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to make a recommendation on a future Respiratory Syncytial Virus Immunisation Programme.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
Policy options based on the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation’s advice on a potentially expanded vaccination programme for respiratory syncytial virus are currently being developed by the Department, working with the UK Health Security Agency and NHS England. The Government will then announce its plans once complete.
Asked by: Maggie Throup (Conservative - Erewash)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an estimate of the number and proportion of (a) children aged two and three years on 31 August 2022, (b) primary school-aged children and eligible secondary school-aged children, (c) people aged six months to 50 years in clinical risk groups, (d) pregnant women, (e) people aged 50 to 64, (f) people aged 65 to 74, (g) people aged 75 and over, (h) people staying in long-stay residential care homes, (i) people who are carers, (j) people in receipt of carer’s allowance, (k) the main carer of an older or disabled person, (m) people who are in close contact with immunocompromised individuals and (n) frontline health and social care workers who had taken up a free seasonal flu vaccination by (i) 30 November 2021 and (ii) 31 December 2021.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
We do not have all the information in the format requested.
Please see the attachment for the information provided.
Flu vaccine uptake is published at the following links:
Asked by: Maggie Throup (Conservative - Erewash)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an estimate of the number and proportion of (a) people aged 50 to 64, (b) people aged 65 to 74, (c) people aged 75 and over, (d) pregnant women, (e) people aged five and over at high risk from covid-19 due to a health condition or weakened immune system, (f) people aged five and over who live with someone who has a weakened immune system, (g) people aged 16 and over who are paid or unpaid carers, (h) people living or working in a care home for older people and (i) frontline health and social care workers who had taken up a free covid-19 booster vaccination by (i) 30 November 2021 and (ii) 31 December 2021.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
We do not have all the information in the format requested.
Please see the attachment for the information provided.
This information is published at the following links:
Asked by: Maggie Throup (Conservative - Erewash)
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 promote the uptake of free (a) seasonal flu and (b) COVID-19 booster vaccinations to eligible cohorts in winter 2022/23..
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The Department together with the National Health Service and UK Health Security Agency are providing advice and information to support those getting the COVID-19 and flu vaccines and to anyone who might have questions about the vaccination process.
Our communications include information and advice shared via television, radio and social media. This has been translated into 28 languages including Albanian, Arabic, Brazilian, Chinese, Hindi, Polish, Tagalog and Urdu. A new country-wide marketing campaign urging millions of eligible people to get their flu and COVID-19 booster vaccines to top up their immunity was launched on 24 October 2022. This includes targeted communications for ethnic minority communities, with a particular focus on those with low vaccine confidence.
Multicultural community activity is seeing teams of campaign ambassadors engage with a range of different ethnic groups who tend to be more vaccine hesitant. This is taking place across the country in high footfall places of worship and nearby community settings.
Asked by: Maggie Throup (Conservative - Erewash)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what percentage by cohort of (a) children aged 2 and 3 years on 31 August 2022, (b) school-aged children including all primary school aged children and eligible secondary school aged children, (c) people aged 6 months to under 50 years in clinical risk groups, (d) pregnant women, (e) people aged 50 to 64, (f) people aged 65 to 74, (g) people aged 75 and over, (h) people staying in long-stay residential care homes, (i) people who are carers, (j) people in receipt of carer’s allowance, (k) the main carer of an older or disabled person, (m) people who are in close contact with immunocompromised individuals and (n) frontline health and social care workers who had taken up the offer of a free seasonal flu vaccination by (A) 30 November 2022 and (B) 31 December 2022.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The information requested is not held centrally. However, the United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UKHSA) publish seasonal influenza vaccine uptake in general practitioner patients. The following table shows the provisional monthly data for 1 September 2022 to 30 November 2022 for various cohorts and seasonal influenza vaccine uptake provisional data for all school aged primary school children in England given from the 1 September 2022 to the 30 November 2022.
Cohort | Uptake 30 November 2022 (%) |
65 years old and over | 76.2 |
6 months old to under 65 years old at-risk | 42.7 |
Pregnant women | 30.0 |
50 years old to under 65 years old and not in a clinical risk group | 35.6 |
50 years old to 65 years old and in a clinical risk group | 56.7 |
All 2 year olds (combined) | 34.5 |
All 3 year olds (combined) | 36.7 |
Reception (age 4 years old to 5 years old) | 47.8 |
Year 1 (age 5 years old to 6 years old) | 48.3 |
Year 2 (age 6 years old to 7 years old) | 49.3 |
Year 3 (age 7 years old to 8 years old) | 48.9 |
Year 4 (age 8-9 years old) | 48.2 |
Year 5 (age 9-10 years old) | 47.5 |
Year 6 (age 10-11 years old) | 46.0 |
All primary school age (age 4 years old to 11 years old) | 48.0 |
Source: Seasonal influenza vaccine uptake in GP patients: monthly data, 2022 to 2023 and Seasonal influenza vaccine uptake in children of school age: monthly data, 2022 to 2023, UKHSA
Data for December 2022 will be published at the end of January 2023 and data for secondary school aged children will be published on 26 January 2023.
UKHSA has published provisional data for Seasonal influenza uptake amongst frontline healthcare workers (HCWs) in England 2022 to 2023 for the period 1 September 2022 to 30 November 2022, it is 41.8%. The data for December 2022 will be published at the end of January 2023.
As of the week, ending 18 December 2022, the proportions who had received their flu vaccination for the 2022 to 2023 season were, 70.1% of total residents and 13.8% of total staff of older adult care homes:
Vaccine uptake for carers will be published in the 2022 to 2023 annual report
Asked by: Maggie Throup (Conservative - Erewash)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much his Department plans to spend on promoting the uptake of free (a) seasonal flu and (b) covid-19 booster vaccinations to eligible cohorts in winter 2022-23; and how much was spent on promoting those vaccinations in winter 2021-22.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The 2022/23 campaign to promote uptake of seasonal flu and COVID-19 booster vaccinations had a media spend of £3.02 million. This was an integrated winter vaccinations campaign therefore it is not possible to split out the spend by vaccine. The 2021/22 campaign to promote uptake of seasonal flu and COVID-19 booster vaccinations had a media spend of £11.5 million. This was also an integrated winter vaccinations campaign and spend cannot be separated out by vaccine.