Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the current immunisation rate for measles is; and what steps he is taking to improve coverage of that immunisation.

Protection against measles is provided in the combination measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR), offered to children at the age of one year, and three years four months but always remains available as a catch up vaccination.

The latest quarterly Cover of Vaccination Evaluated Rapidly uptake data can be found on the Public Health England (PHE) website, at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/cover-of-vaccination-evaluated-rapidly-cover-programme-2016-to-2017-quarterly-data

England coverage of the first dose of MMR vaccine at five years continues to exceed the World Health Organization target of 95%.

In November 2016 a measles and rubella elimination strategy group was established to oversee the development of a United Kingdom-wide Measles and Rubella elimination strategy.

PHE and NHS England work closely with providers at a local level to target specific communities where uptake of the MMR vaccine is known to be poor, as well as widening access by commissioning a range of alternative providers to complement existing general practitioner activities and community health service delivered immunisations.