Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment the Government has made of the uptake of vaccines containing porcine gelatine by children from families who observe religions that restrict the consumption of pork products.

Information about the religion of children being vaccinated, or their families, is not routinely collected by Public Health England (PHE). Therefore, it is not possible to make a national assessment of the uptake of vaccines containing porcine gelatine by children from families of a religious background that restricts the consumption of pork products.

Whilst broad acceptance has been gained from faith groups for the use of porcine gelatine in non-oral medicines (see PHE’s website

www.gov.uk/government/news/vaccines-and-gelatine-phe-response)

PHE recognises that there is still some uncertainty amongst some groups about the acceptability of the nasal flu spray.

PHE is therefore conducting an exercise to assess the impact of factors such as religion, deprivation and ethnicity on uptake of influenza vaccination in children in 2013/14 in a limited number of geographical areas. This work is currently being reviewed externally and results will be available in spring 2015.