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 the (a) availability and (b) provision of (i) flu and (ii) pneumonia vaccines for people eligible for free vaccinations.

Public Health England (PHE) provides flu vaccines centrally for the children’s flu programme. Centrally purchased flu vaccines are carefully monitored by PHE to ensure there is equitable distribution across England and sufficient in-date vaccine for patients who present throughout the season.

General practitioners (GPs) and other providers are directly responsible for the flu vaccine supplies used to deliver the national flu programme to the other eligible groups. PHE maintains oversight to help facilitate a constant supply of vaccine, liaising with vaccine manufacturers to ascertain whether there are any manufacturing problems which could impact the running of the national programme.

Pneumococcal vaccine PPV23 is not centrally procured; the vaccine is purchased by individual GPs or hospital trusts. The Department monitors the supplies of vaccines and other pharmaceutical products purchased by the National Health Service. They supply regular updates to the field and GPs can check the current supply position by contacting the Department’s Medicine Supply team.