Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had recent discussions with NHS England on flu vaccine uptake among staff working in (a) the NHS and (b) social care settings.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
The Department works closely with the UK Health Security Agency and NHS England to encourage everyone who is eligible to get their flu vaccine. This is supported by a national Get Winter Strong marketing campaign to encourage uptake of the flu vaccine.
For the autumn 2024 flu vaccination programme, NHS England has provided a range of resources and tools to support the vaccination offer to frontline health and social care workers. For example, National Health Service payslips were used to encourage eligible colleagues to get their vaccines, as were NHS social media channels, which included videos from spokespeople, including the Chief Nursing Officer for England, and resources and messages have been shared through established frontline health and care worker networks, including unions and representative bodies.
There is also a comprehensive range of information leaflets, promotional materials, and other resources to inform members of the public and health care professionals. This includes leaflets translated into over 30 languages, and available in easy read and large print formats, braille, and British Sign Language. These are available at the following link:
https://www.healthpublications.gov.uk/Home.html
In addition, improved reporting via NHS England’s Federated Data Platform is providing more detailed regional and integrated care board (ICB) level uptake intelligence than has been possible in previous campaigns. ICBs are being encouraged to work with the highest performing trusts in their region to share best practice and lessons learned, and to provide additional support for those providers where uptake is low. The UKHSA publishes weekly data on flu vaccine uptake in eligible groups, which is available at the following link:
www.gov.uk/government/statistics/national-flu-and-covid-19-surveillance-reports-2024-to-2025-season
The following table shows the latest data covering vaccination from 2021/22 up to 5 January 2025, as a percentage and broken down by patient group, and the comparative periods in previous years:
Patient group | 2024/25 | 2023/24 | 2022/23 | 2021/22 |
65-year-olds and over | 73.8% | 77.1% | 78.7% | 82.5% |
At risk | 38.6% | 40.4% | 46.7% | 53.0% |
Pregnant women | 33.8% | 31.0% | 33.6% | 39.8% |
Two-year-olds | 40.9% | 43.2% | 40.4% | 48.7% |
Three-year-olds | 42.5% | 43.5% | 42.9% | 50.7% |
The data for school aged children and health care worker vaccine uptake is published monthly, and is available, respectively, at the following two links:
www.gov.uk/government/statistics/seasonal-influenza-vaccine-uptake-in-children-of-school-age-monthly-data-2024-to-2025
www.gov.uk/government/statistics/seasonal-influenza-and-covid-19-vaccine-uptake-in-frontline-healthcare-workers-monthly-data-2024-to-2025
The following table summarises the latest data on vaccination from 2021/22 up to 30 November 2024, for children in primary and secondary school and for health care workers:
Cohort | 2024/25 | 2023/24 | 2022/23 | 2021/22 |
Primary school | 49.1% | 48.1% | 48.0% | 39.5% |
Secondary school | 32.6% | 29.5% | N/A | 26.2% |
Health care workers | 32.2% | 38.5% | 41.8% | 52.5% |
Adult social care setting vaccine uptake is published monthly, and is available at the following link:
This year there was less time to complete vaccinations as the campaign for all adults, apart from pregnant women, started in early October 2024 rather than in September, as in previous years. This was based on the advice of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, that it is better to vaccinate closer to when flu circulates because of waning vaccine effectiveness.
It should be noted that for most eligible groups, flu vaccination reached the highest levels of uptake ever achieved in the programme during the pandemic, but has dropped back since then in adults.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
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 increase the level of flu vaccine uptake.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
The Department works closely with the UK Health Security Agency and NHS England to encourage everyone who is eligible to get their flu vaccine. This is supported by a national Get Winter Strong marketing campaign to encourage uptake of the flu vaccine.
For the autumn 2024 flu vaccination programme, NHS England has provided a range of resources and tools to support the vaccination offer to frontline health and social care workers. For example, National Health Service payslips were used to encourage eligible colleagues to get their vaccines, as were NHS social media channels, which included videos from spokespeople, including the Chief Nursing Officer for England, and resources and messages have been shared through established frontline health and care worker networks, including unions and representative bodies.
There is also a comprehensive range of information leaflets, promotional materials, and other resources to inform members of the public and health care professionals. This includes leaflets translated into over 30 languages, and available in easy read and large print formats, braille, and British Sign Language. These are available at the following link:
https://www.healthpublications.gov.uk/Home.html
In addition, improved reporting via NHS England’s Federated Data Platform is providing more detailed regional and integrated care board (ICB) level uptake intelligence than has been possible in previous campaigns. ICBs are being encouraged to work with the highest performing trusts in their region to share best practice and lessons learned, and to provide additional support for those providers where uptake is low. The UKHSA publishes weekly data on flu vaccine uptake in eligible groups, which is available at the following link:
www.gov.uk/government/statistics/national-flu-and-covid-19-surveillance-reports-2024-to-2025-season
The following table shows the latest data covering vaccination from 2021/22 up to 5 January 2025, as a percentage and broken down by patient group, and the comparative periods in previous years:
Patient group | 2024/25 | 2023/24 | 2022/23 | 2021/22 |
65-year-olds and over | 73.8% | 77.1% | 78.7% | 82.5% |
At risk | 38.6% | 40.4% | 46.7% | 53.0% |
Pregnant women | 33.8% | 31.0% | 33.6% | 39.8% |
Two-year-olds | 40.9% | 43.2% | 40.4% | 48.7% |
Three-year-olds | 42.5% | 43.5% | 42.9% | 50.7% |
The data for school aged children and health care worker vaccine uptake is published monthly, and is available, respectively, at the following two links:
www.gov.uk/government/statistics/seasonal-influenza-vaccine-uptake-in-children-of-school-age-monthly-data-2024-to-2025
www.gov.uk/government/statistics/seasonal-influenza-and-covid-19-vaccine-uptake-in-frontline-healthcare-workers-monthly-data-2024-to-2025
The following table summarises the latest data on vaccination from 2021/22 up to 30 November 2024, for children in primary and secondary school and for health care workers:
Cohort | 2024/25 | 2023/24 | 2022/23 | 2021/22 |
Primary school | 49.1% | 48.1% | 48.0% | 39.5% |
Secondary school | 32.6% | 29.5% | N/A | 26.2% |
Health care workers | 32.2% | 38.5% | 41.8% | 52.5% |
Adult social care setting vaccine uptake is published monthly, and is available at the following link:
This year there was less time to complete vaccinations as the campaign for all adults, apart from pregnant women, started in early October 2024 rather than in September, as in previous years. This was based on the advice of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, that it is better to vaccinate closer to when flu circulates because of waning vaccine effectiveness.
It should be noted that for most eligible groups, flu vaccination reached the highest levels of uptake ever achieved in the programme during the pandemic, but has dropped back since then in adults.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the levels of the uptake of the flu vaccine.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
The Department works closely with the UK Health Security Agency and NHS England to encourage everyone who is eligible to get their flu vaccine. This is supported by a national Get Winter Strong marketing campaign to encourage uptake of the flu vaccine.
For the autumn 2024 flu vaccination programme, NHS England has provided a range of resources and tools to support the vaccination offer to frontline health and social care workers. For example, National Health Service payslips were used to encourage eligible colleagues to get their vaccines, as were NHS social media channels, which included videos from spokespeople, including the Chief Nursing Officer for England, and resources and messages have been shared through established frontline health and care worker networks, including unions and representative bodies.
There is also a comprehensive range of information leaflets, promotional materials, and other resources to inform members of the public and health care professionals. This includes leaflets translated into over 30 languages, and available in easy read and large print formats, braille, and British Sign Language. These are available at the following link:
https://www.healthpublications.gov.uk/Home.html
In addition, improved reporting via NHS England’s Federated Data Platform is providing more detailed regional and integrated care board (ICB) level uptake intelligence than has been possible in previous campaigns. ICBs are being encouraged to work with the highest performing trusts in their region to share best practice and lessons learned, and to provide additional support for those providers where uptake is low. The UKHSA publishes weekly data on flu vaccine uptake in eligible groups, which is available at the following link:
www.gov.uk/government/statistics/national-flu-and-covid-19-surveillance-reports-2024-to-2025-season
The following table shows the latest data covering vaccination from 2021/22 up to 5 January 2025, as a percentage and broken down by patient group, and the comparative periods in previous years:
Patient group | 2024/25 | 2023/24 | 2022/23 | 2021/22 |
65-year-olds and over | 73.8% | 77.1% | 78.7% | 82.5% |
At risk | 38.6% | 40.4% | 46.7% | 53.0% |
Pregnant women | 33.8% | 31.0% | 33.6% | 39.8% |
Two-year-olds | 40.9% | 43.2% | 40.4% | 48.7% |
Three-year-olds | 42.5% | 43.5% | 42.9% | 50.7% |
The data for school aged children and health care worker vaccine uptake is published monthly, and is available, respectively, at the following two links:
www.gov.uk/government/statistics/seasonal-influenza-vaccine-uptake-in-children-of-school-age-monthly-data-2024-to-2025
www.gov.uk/government/statistics/seasonal-influenza-and-covid-19-vaccine-uptake-in-frontline-healthcare-workers-monthly-data-2024-to-2025
The following table summarises the latest data on vaccination from 2021/22 up to 30 November 2024, for children in primary and secondary school and for health care workers:
Cohort | 2024/25 | 2023/24 | 2022/23 | 2021/22 |
Primary school | 49.1% | 48.1% | 48.0% | 39.5% |
Secondary school | 32.6% | 29.5% | N/A | 26.2% |
Health care workers | 32.2% | 38.5% | 41.8% | 52.5% |
Adult social care setting vaccine uptake is published monthly, and is available at the following link:
This year there was less time to complete vaccinations as the campaign for all adults, apart from pregnant women, started in early October 2024 rather than in September, as in previous years. This was based on the advice of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, that it is better to vaccinate closer to when flu circulates because of waning vaccine effectiveness.
It should be noted that for most eligible groups, flu vaccination reached the highest levels of uptake ever achieved in the programme during the pandemic, but has dropped back since then in adults.
Asked by: Baroness Grey-Thompson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the findings set out in the report Eroding the right to family life: human rights violations in Britain’s child protection systems, published by the Children and Families Truth Commission on 15 November, and whether they will produce guidance to ensure that local authorities intervene early, fulfil their duty to provide support services to families in need, and regularly review care plans to ensure that children in the child protection system can be reunited with their families at the earliest possible opportunity.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Local authorities are required to provide services for children in need for the purposes of safeguarding and promoting their welfare.
All local authorities must adhere to statutory guidance including ‘Working together to safeguard children 2023’, which is attached and can also be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-safeguard-children--2. The guidance is clear that safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children relies on providing help and support to meet the needs of children as soon as problems emerge.
Ofsted inspects whether local authorities are delivering appropriately for children.
On 18 November 2024, the department published ‘Keeping Children Safe, Helping Families Thrive’, which is attached and can also be accessed here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67375fe5ed0fc07b53499a42/Keeping_Children_Safe__Helping_Families_Thrive_.pdf. This sets out this government’s approach to reforming the system of support for children and families, including rebalancing the system toward earlier intervention through the national roll out of family help and child protection reforms. The local government finance policy statement published on 28 November 2024, by the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government confirmed that the rollout of these reforms will be supported by £500 million of funding from April 2025. The statement is accessible here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-government-finance-policy-statement-2025-to-2026/local-government-finance-policy-statement-2025-to-2026.
Family Help is a seamless, non-stigmatising offer of support delivered by multi-disciplinary community-based teams. It combines the strengths of targeted early help and section 17 work, with an emphasis on whole-family working and greater flexibility on who leads work with families, ensuring children and families receive the right support at the earliest opportunity, crucially improving their outcomes and also reducing costs to public services.
Through the £45 million Families First for Children Pathfinder programme and Family Networks pilot running in ten local authorities, the department is testing models and approaches to parental support and advocacy, so that parents feel empowered to have a strong voice when navigating the child protection process. Through the same programme, we are also testing stronger multi-agency approaches to support families. This includes new Multi-Agency Child Protection Teams and Lead Child Protection Practitioners, who are qualified social workers with strong expertise in child protection and assessments. These teams will see local authority, police, and health and other relevant agencies work together in an integrated way to help families overcome challenges, stay together wherever possible, and thrive whilst keeping children safe.
The introduction of Family Help and reforms to child protection from April 2025 will produce a fundamental shift in the way the department is able to respond to children and families who need help. The changes will form part of an improved end-to-end system that offers a seamless system of support, ensuring children and families access the right support at the right time, delivered by the right person.
More detailed guidance on these reforms will be published in the new year which will confirm the changes we expect local authorities and their partners to deliver, including minimum expectations for delivery and opportunities for local flexibility.
Asked by: Jess Asato (Labour - Lowestoft)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the report by the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel, published on 26 November 2024; and what steps she is taking to include the (a) prevention and (b) tackling of child sexual abuse in her Department's plans for introducing Multi-Agency Child Protection Units.
Answered by Janet Daby
This government is committed to keeping children safe and to breaking the link between young people’s backgrounds and their success. Reforming children’s social care is critical to giving hundreds of thousands of children and young people the start in life they deserve.
The department is very grateful for the work of the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel, including their report published last week on child sexual abuse in the family environment. Any instance of child abuse is abhorrent, and this report importantly highlights the weaknesses in the system that have shielded abusers and left children at risk of harm. There is a renewed government focus in which we will be driving a holistic and ambitious response to tackling all forms of abuse, including child sexual abuse. Multi-agency child protection teams are based on a recommendation from a previous Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel report, Child Protection in England. They are part of the Families First for Children (FFC) pathfinders that draw on evidence from the ‘Supporting Families’ and ‘Strengthening families, protecting children’ programmes, which deliver multi-agency and multi-disciplinary whole-family support for children and young people. Evaluation of the ‘Supporting Families’ programme showed a 32% reduction in children going into care from families within two years of being on the programme. The ‘Family Safeguarding’ programme evaluation also found significant reductions in the numbers of new looked after children aged under 12, which reduced by 26%, average number of children on Child Protection Plans aged under 12, which reduced by 43%, and police call outs, the monthly average of which reduced by 64%.
In the ten FFC pathfinder areas, multi-agency child protection practitioners from the local authority, police, health and other relevant agencies are working together in a much more integrated way with overall responsibility for protecting children from harm, alongside social workers with the highest levels of knowledge and skills in child protection work. We know that by working together, agencies are better able to accurately and quickly identify when children are likely to experience, or are experiencing, significant harm and take decisive and skilled action to address this.
In addition to the £45 million already invested in the FFC pathfinder programme, last week the government announced two grants for Children’s Services in 2025/26 which should be used together, alongside the £680 million increase in the Social Care Grant:
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much his Department has spent on consultants since 5 July 2024.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Information regarding expenditure on consultants for the period since 5 July 2024 for the core Department is unavailable, as it is currently unaudited. Fully audited figures for the year from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 will be available upon the publication of the Department’s Annual Report and Accounts (ARA) next year. The Accountability Report within the ARA includes a table on expenditure for Consultancy, Agency and Temporary workers.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much his Department has spent on consultancy fees in each year since 2021.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table shows the amount the Department spent on consultancy fees, each year since 2021:
Year | 2022/23 | 2021/22 | 2020/21 |
Spend | £4,092,000 | £252,815,000 | £188,978,000 |
Source: the Department’s Annual Report and Accounts within the Accountability Report, in the table on expenditure on Consultancy, Agency and Temporary workers.
The value for 2020/21 has been amended from previous Parliamentary Questions as a prior year adjustment for 2020/21 was reflected in the 2021/22 Annual Report and Accounts to account for £17,365,000 for the vaccine taskforce, which was transferred from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, amending the value for 2020/21 from £171,613,000 to £188,978,000. The table excludes the date for 2023/24. Fully audited figures for 2023/24 will be available upon the publication of the Department’s Annual Report and Accounts later this year.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the Centre for Social Justice and Justice report, At what cost? Exploring the impact of forced labour in the UK; and how they intend to (1) address its four central findings, and (2) respond to its recommendations.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government welcomes the Centre for Social Justice report, which provides valuable insights and recommendations on improving the UK’s response to forced labour. We remain committed to strengthening our response to modern slavery and are working in partnership with a wide range of stakeholders to tackle forced labour in the UK.
The Government is establishing the Fair Work Agency (FWA), a single enforcement body dedicated to ensuring compliance and protecting vulnerable workers from exploitation. The FWA will provide a single point of contact for reporting labour exploitation and related concerns, allowing for a more coordinated and comprehensive response to exploitation and abuse. The FWA will be adequately resourced, with powers to proactively investigate and enforce compliance with labour laws.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to prevent the spread of Mpox.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
There are two distinct types, known as clades, of the Mpox virus, specifically clade I and clade II. The previous significant outbreak in the United Kingdom in 2022 was from clade II. Details of the current National Health Service Mpox vaccination programme are available at the following link:
Clade I is currently classified as a high consequence infectious disease. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has led extensive planning across the Government and the NHS to deal with Mpox cases in the UK, and will coordinate contact tracing and offer testing and vaccination to contacts as needed.
Four cases of clade I Mpox have been detected in the UK, three of which are household contacts of the first case. All four patients are currently under specialist medical care.
In line with the advice of the Advisory Committee for Dangerous Pathogens, the border response for direct flights from affected countries includes pre-arrival health declarations. Digital messaging is displayed on information screens at 10 international airports in England and the Eurostar terminal, and the UKHSA is meeting flights from affected countries and giving health advice leaflets to passengers and crew.
We are placing a strong emphasis on ensuring that there are high levels of awareness among clinicians about the risks and the actions they need to take. The UKHSA Returning Workers Scheme for organisations sending workers to outbreak areas also provides pre-travel advice, active monitoring on return, and medical support for symptomatic returnees when necessary. Pre-travel advice for Mpox is publicly available on TravelHealthPro website, which is available at the following link:
https://travelhealthpro.org.uk/
The risk to the general population of the UK of being exposed to Mpox clade I is currently considered low.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to help tackle (a) knife crime by and (b) the online sale of bladed weapons to people under the age of 18 in Wales.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
Since 2019, the Home Office has provided over £5 million of funding for a Violence Reduction Unit in Wales (known as the Wales Violence Prevention Unit (VPU)) which is providing a multi-agency, preventative response designed to tackle the drivers of serious violence and knife crime. Over the same period, we have invested c.£3.5 million (including c.£535k in 2023/24) in ‘hotspot policing’ to boost the policing response to serious violence in South Wales. In 24/25, we are providing c.£4.4 million of funding to all force areas in Wales under the Hotspot Response fund to deliver high-visibility patrols and problem-solving tactics in the streets and neighbourhoods worst affected by serious violence and Anti Social Behaviour.
The Wales VPU is tasked with investing in evidence-based approaches designed to steer vulnerable young people away from involvement in violence. As part of this approach, the VPU is funding local interventions including A&E Navigators, delivering advice, support and guidance to patients of any age who have experienced violence with injury, with the aim of engaging with those injured whilst they are in hospital to help break the cycle of violence at the point of crisis. The VPU is also funding youth workers to deliver sessions to young people within both education and community settings covering issues such as knife crime. Additionally, just under £1m was awarded in 2023/24 to support delivery of the Serious Violence Duty across Wales.
We have also introduced new legislation which, subject to parliamentary approval, will ban zombie-style knives and machetes from 24 September 2024. Through the Criminal Justice Bill 2023, we are providing more powers for police to seize knives held in private that they believe will be used for unlawful violence, increasing the maximum penalty for the offences of selling prohibited weapons and selling knives to under 18s and creating a new offence of possessing an article with blade or point or an offensive weapon with intent to commit unlawful violence.
It is an offence to sell bladed articles to people under the age of 18 and with measures in the Offensive Weapons Act 2019 we strengthened the requirements for age verification, and made it an offence to send bladed articles to residential addresses after they are bought online, unless the seller has arrangements in place with the delivery company to ensure that the product would not be delivered into the hands of a person under 18. This legislation is enforced by Trading Standards and the police. The Home Office does not hold enforcement data in relation to breaches of this legislation.
The Online Safety Act 2023 has finished its parliamentary passage and received Royal Assent on 26 October 2023. The Government's intention is to have the regime operational as soon as possible.
Ofcom published the first draft codes of practice on illegal content for consultation on 9 November 2023. The Government expects these to be finalised in late 2024. These codes of practice will set out the steps companies can take to fulfil the duties for illegal content. In scope services will either need to follow these codes, or show their approach is equally effective. Tech companies will need to remove and limit the spread of illegal content. This means less illegal content online and when it does appear it will be removed quicker.
Schedule 7 of the Act sets out a series of priority offences which includes the sale of weapons. Companies will need to take particularly robust action to prevent the proliferation of this content online and ensure that their services are not used for offending. This means companies will need to proactively mitigate the risk that their services are used for illegal activity or to share this illegal content, to design their services to mitigate the risk of this occurring and to remove any content that does appear as soon as they are made aware of it.