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 that all pregnant women are offered the whooping cough vaccine at the optimal time in pregnancy.

All pregnant women are offered the whooping cough vaccination in every pregnancy, around the time of the mid-pregnancy scan, usually 20 weeks, and ideally before 32 weeks, via midwifery in the community or their general practice.

The Department is working with NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency to encourage high uptake of all immunisations, including in underserved communities and in groups with historically lower vaccination rates.

Significant efforts have been made to raise awareness of the importance of vaccination to protect babies against whooping cough, also known as pertussis. These include targeted campaigns using social media, digital screen graphics, and community outreach. The National Health Service actively promotes vaccination for pregnant women to protect their newborns, and efforts are underway to enhance the recording and monitoring of vaccinations, ensuring accurate data collection to assess the programme’s effectiveness.

Recent data shows maternal pertussis vaccination coverage from July to September 2025 was 71.9%, which was 7.5% higher than the equivalent period in 2025. However, there is more to do to stabilise and improve uptake, and that is why we have set out actions to improve uptake in our 10-Year Health Plan for England. Putting our plans into action, we have recently launched a campaign to promote awareness and confidence in vaccination, including for pregnant women, which will run throughout the year.

To improve accessibility, community pharmacies in areas of high deprivation and low uptake are now also commissioned to offer some vaccinations, making it more convenient for individuals to get vaccinated.