Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many GP surgeries (a) are waiting for a supply of this year's flu vaccine (b) have reported that their supply of this year's vaccine has been delayed.

The flu vaccines used in the children’s flu programme are supplied centrally by Public Health England. There have not been delays to the provision of these vaccines to providers of the children’s flu programme in 2018.

General practices and community pharmacies are responsible for procuring and ordering the seasonal flu vaccines for their eligible population. The adjuvanted trivalent flu vaccine (aTIV) is the recommended vaccine for those aged 65 years and over because it is a more effective vaccine for this age group and should offer better protection against flu. To enable aTIV to be available in 2018-19, deliveries have had to be phased between September and mid-November.