Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to reduce deaths from (a) pneumonia and (b) pneumococcal disease; and if he will make a statement.

The Department is taking a range of measures to reduce deaths from pneumonia and pneumococcal disease including:

Vaccinating all of those for whom pneumococcal infection is likely to be more common and/or serious, i.e. infants as part of the routine childhood immunisation programme; those aged 65 years or over; and children and adults in clinical risk groups.

The Department is also working with Health Education England to identify how prescribing competencies can be built into professional curricula. This is part of a programme optimising the use of antibiotics to improve the treatment of infections including pneumonia.