Whooping Cough: Vaccination
(asked on 2nd January 2026) - View Source
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 address regional disparities in whooping cough vaccination uptake among pregnant women.
The latest published data for September 2025 shows that prenatal pertussis vaccination coverage has improved in all seven NHS England regions when compared to September 2024.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) report shows monthly prenatal pertussis vaccination coverage followed an increasing trend since April 2024. The report is available at the following link:
To support continued improvements, NHS England has developed and implemented a vaccination in pregnancy improvement plan. Actions delivered to date include:
- system level oversight and leadership of programme commissioning and delivery, to strengthen the offer process and tackle factors contributing to low vaccine uptake;
- ensuring commissioned providers are aware of their responsibilities within the vaccination in pregnancy programmes and are working to strengthen the vaccination offer and ensure consistency in delivery approach;
- commissioning community pharmacy providers in areas of low uptake and high deprivation to deliver National Health Service pertussis vaccinations to pregnant women opportunistically or on request;
- revised governance arrangements for vaccination in pregnancy programmes, with regional and national colleagues meeting regularly to share learning and good practice from local systems; and
- improved vaccination recording and accurate data collection to monitor programme effectiveness, allowing regional teams and their partner integrated care boards to access timely NHS operational data. This informs targeted action to increase uptake and reduce inequalities.