Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what evidence they have collected to show the effectiveness of actions, taken since 2016, to improve the uptake of vaccinations of children.

The NHS Long Term Plan set out a clear commitment to improve uptake of vaccinations and a range of action has been taken. This has included expanding key childhood vaccination programmes. All primary school children are now eligible for their seasonal flu vaccination through the National Health Service school vaccination programme after it was extended to include year 6 this season. NHS Digital is due to publish the annual vaccine uptake data, collected by Public Health England, for 2019/20 in September 2020, which will give some indication of whether these interventions have started to be effective.

General practice plays an invaluable role in the delivery of vaccination services, especially for children. During 2019, NHS England and NHS Improvement undertook the most significant review of vaccination and immunisation payment mechanisms since 1990. The findings of this extensive review identified a range of effective interventions. The recent update to the general practitioner (GP) contract confirmed the interventions will see the biggest reforms to the payment and incentive system in 30 years to support GP practices improve vaccination coverage.