Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
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 (a) level of covid-19 vaccine hesitancy amongst women and girls of childbearing age due to concerns around fertility and menstrual disturbance and (b) effectiveness of the Government's strategy to tackle that hesitancy.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The latest assessment on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in the United Kingdom is available at the following link:
The latest data published in August 2021 shows 4% of adults reported vaccine hesitancy in the UK. In females aged between 16 to 29 years old, hesitancy increased to 9%, whilst for females aged between 30 to 49 years old vaccine hesitancy was at 6%. This is compared to 19% in females aged 16 to 29 years old and 14% for those aged 20 to 49 years old in February 2021.
Whilst vaccine hesitancy has decreased, the Department continues to work closely with our partners to address concerns around pregnancy, breastfeeding and fertility. Our vaccine toolkits for stakeholders, partners and employers provides information on these concerns, and we have shared case stories of women of childbearing age who have received the vaccine before, during or after pregnancy to reassure women who may still be concerned. We have also worked with trusted sources to publicly address and reassure the concerns of younger women. At a local level we have supported webinars and engagement sessions specifically focused on women’s vaccines concerns and tailored to specific demographic groups.
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of people over the age of 18 have taken up covid-19 vaccination by (a) ethnicity and (b) age; and what assessment he has made of the (i) barriers to vaccination and (ii) effectiveness of Government measures to increase uptake in groups where take up is low.
Answered by Maggie Throup
NHS England and NHS Improvement publish vaccine uptake by both age and ethnicity. This is published daily and ranges from ‘Under 18’ to ‘80+’. There are also weekly and monthly publications of these statistics, which provides a more detailed breakdown of vaccine uptake by age and a detailed breakdown of vaccine uptake by ethnicity. The data can we found at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/covid-19-vaccinations/
The Department reviews research into COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. This includes information gathered by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), health studies, and insights generated by the vaccine programme itself.
COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy is monitored by ONS. Data is published to record the reasons people give for vaccine refusal. A breakdown of this data can be found at the following link:
This is supported by Healthwatch, who undertook research in Spring 2021 and looked at uptake in ethnic minority groups who are known to be vaccine hesitant. They found that people commonly cited issues such as practical barriers, misinformation, and deeper cultural mistrust.
There have been a range of national and hyper-local initiatives in place to drive uptake, including national communications, provision of mobile/pop-up delivery models and work with faith/community leaders. These efforts have been hugely successful in communicating benefits of vaccination. Vaccine hesitancy has decreased from 9% in February to 3% in August for all adults per ONS data. The statistics also showed hesitancy has decreased for those aged 16 and 17 from 14% to 11%. Furthermore, YouGov polling indicates that hesitancy amongst ethnic minority groups has reduced from 63% to 14% from October to August. This success has been facilitated by the wide range of interventions and strategies employed to ensure strong vaccine uptake.
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the tiered regional approach in slowing the rate of covid prior to the national lockdown.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The Joint Biosecurity Centre is currently assessing the evidence of the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventions of all types. There are some early signs that the introduction and escalation of local alert levels had a material impact on behaviour, the number of household contacts and cases.
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the infection fatality rate of covid-19 is in the UK (a) overall and (b) by (i) age group, (ii) gender and (iii) ethnic background.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Public Health England does not publish data on the infection fatality rate or the case fatality rate of COVID-19.
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of the capacity at NHS Nightingale Hospitals are being used; and what plans are in place for the use of the remainder of the capacity if it is not required at this stage of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Bed availability and occupancy rates are collected and published via the national reporting system at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/bed-availability-and-occupancy/
However, information is only published at trust level. The Nightingale hospitals in London (Barts Health NHS Trust) and the North West (Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust) are the only two to have accepted COVID-19 patients at this time. All Nightingale hospitals are now on standby.
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
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 ensure support for (a) routine care and (b) all other NHS services continues during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
As a result of the measures put in place to tackle COVID-19, we now appear to have passed the peak of new cases being reported and it has been decided to begin the ‘reset’ of services across the National Health Service. This reset will involve the release and redeployment of some of the treatment capacity that could have been needed while the number of COVID-19 patients was rising sharply.
All NHS organisations have therefore been asked to step-up non-COVID-19 services as soon as possible, starting with the most urgent. Decisions on how to do this will be taken locally, based on local demands for health services. The NHS issued guidance to NHS service providers on 29 April outlining the next steps for the NHS response to COVID-19.