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 ensure the NHS is appropriately prepared for winter flu-related admissions in 2025 and early 2026.

We have started earlier and done more than ever to prepare for winter this year. We continue to monitor the impact of winter pressures on the National Health Service over the winter months, providing additional support to services across the country as needed.

The Department is continuing to take key steps to ensure the health service is prepared throughout the colder months. This includes taking actions to try and reduce demand pressure on accident and emergency departments, increasing vaccination rates, and offering health checks to the most vulnerable, as well as stress-testing integrated care board and trust winter plans to ensure they are able to meet demand and ensure patient flow.

Flu is a recurring pressure that the NHS faces every winter. There is particular risk of severe illness for older people, the very young, pregnant people, and those with certain underlying health conditions. The flu vaccine remains the best form of defense against influenza, particularly for the most vulnerable, and continues to be highly effective at preventing severe disease and hospitalisation.  This year we have:

• expanded the use of the National Booking Service for flu vaccination;
• carried out a major campaign aimed at eligible people, encouraging them to take up their vaccinations; and
• developed the “flu walk-in finder” so that, from October 2025, patients can easily look up when they can walk into a community pharmacy to get a vaccination.