Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to UKSHA data showing increasing hospitalisations among children with covid-19, if he will urgently publish (a) data on the primary cause of those hospitalisations and (b) the proportion of cases where covid-19 was the primary cause of the hospitalisation.

The United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UKHSA) does not collect data on the causes of increasing hospitalisation rates among children with COVID-19, and there are no plans for the publication of data on the primary cause of these hospitalisations.

The UKHSA collects data on the number of cases for which COVID-19 was the reason for hospitalisation in all age groups, including children, through the Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) Watch surveillance system. This data is not currently validated, however the UKHSA is considering including this data in future published reports as percentage figures (proportions).