Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the programme of flu vaccinations is delivered successfully for this autumn and winter.

NHS England and NHS Improvement are working with local areas to ensure that regional teams have plans in place to increase coverage of the flu vaccination programme this winter. New models of delivery have been shared with regional commissioning teams to encourage innovation, such as mobile and mass vaccination models, and allow for increases in uptake safely, whilst observing social distancing and personal protective equipment requirements.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have introduced an enhanced call and recall system, so that those who are eligible are reminded to attend a vaccination session.

Alongside this, additional trained workforce is being made available to local providers to help them vaccinate more eligible people. Public Health England have also launched new marketing campaign to encourage uptake of flu vaccination amongst eligible groups.

Additional flu vaccine has been purchased by the Department, which will be available to providers from November to increase uptake in existing groups and facilitate expansion of the programme.