Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to help protect (a) vulnerable, (b) elderly and (c) other people from influenza.

Public Health England, in partnership with NHS England, is running the ‘Stay Well This Winter’ campaign which encourages people most at-risk of preventable emergency hospital admission to take actions helping them stay well e.g. flu vaccination and visiting a pharmacy at the first signs of a winter illness.

The National Health Service annual influenza vaccination programme helps to protect those who are most at risk of serious illness or death by targeting the most vulnerable individuals such as pregnant women, those aged 65 and over, those with chronic health conditions, carers and health and social care workers working in care homes and domiciliary settings, in England.

Vaccination is also offered to healthy children (this year those aged two to three years of age, those in reception class, and school years one to four are all eligible) to both protect young children and to reduce the wider spread of flu in households and communities.