Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate his Department has made of the take up of the HPV vaccine in (a) Lambeth, (b) Greater London and (c) the UK for each ethnic group.

HPV vaccination uptake data by ethnicity is not routinely collected and collated nationally. Accordingly it is not possible to provide information relating to the take up of the HPV vaccine in Lambeth, Greater London and the United Kingdom for each ethnic group.

Some studies conducted in England have demonstrated lower vaccination uptake in non-white ethnic groups. Sacks et al¹ reported 3-dose HPV vaccination coverage among young women attending sexual health services across England of 72% among the White ethnic group, 56% in the Asian ethnic group and 55% in the Black ethnic group. Bowyer et al² showed that among young girls attending school in London, those from non-white ethnic backgrounds were significantly less likely to report having received all three doses of the HPV vaccine than those from the white ethnic group.

¹Sacks RJ, Copas AJ, Wilkinson DM, Robinson AJ. Uptake of the HPV vaccination programme in England: a cross-sectional survey of young women attending sexual health services. Sex Transm Infect 2014 Jun;90(4):315-21.

²Bowyer HL, Dodd RH, Marlow LA, Waller J. Association between human papillomavirus vaccine status and other cervical cancer risk factors. Vaccine 2014 Jul 23;32(34):4310-6.