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 tackle the misinformation on vaccination on digital and social media platforms.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to the hon. Member for Romford (Andrew Rosindell MP) on 26 March 2019 Question 233488.

We want to ensure that parents have the right information when making important choices such as vaccinations for their children – as well as for people of all ages eligible for vaccines against diseases such as meningitis and shingles. The Department is working with Public Health England to help remind people about the dreadful diseases vaccines protect against.

We have also been in discussion with major social media companies such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram about the issue of misinformation and proliferation of harmful content and its impact on people’s mental health, holding a summit on Monday 28 April, where vaccines were also raised. We intend to follow this with another meeting in the summer.