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 uptake of Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccine among eligible infants.

Official vaccine coverage estimates for the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine are measured for eligible children at three months and 12 months old, and are published quarterly by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), and annually by NHS England. The UKHSA’s quarterly figures and NHS England’s annual figures are available, respectively, at the following two links:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/cover-of-vaccination-evaluated-rapidly-cover-programme-2024-to-2025-quarterly-data

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-immunisation-statistics/england-2023-24

The latest data captures BCG coverage at the age of three months old for children born 1 January to 31 March 2024, and at 12 months old for children born 1 April 2023 to 30 June 2023. Measured at three months, coverage in England was 77.4%, and measured at 12 months, it was 84.5%.