Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that his Department's pneumococcal vaccination targets are met.

Immunisation against pneumococcal disease is offered to children at two, four and 12-13 months of age, and adults aged 65 years or over. It is also recommended to those at increased risk of pneumococcal infection.

There are no targets set for the pneumococcal programmes. The need to aim for as high an uptake rate as possible is set out in the Section 7A service agreement between the Department and NHS England for each individual vaccination programme. This agreement states that the objectives of the programme concerned is to improve or at least maintain the vaccination coverage from the previous year’s annual uptake results.

Vaccinating risk groups is now in the general practitioners (GPs) contract and GP practices have systems to ensure eligible patients are invited for vaccine to improve coverage.

Leaflets and other promotional material explaining the benefits of pneumococcal immunisation are produced by Public Health England (PHE) for the use of GPs and other health professionals. Information about this immunisation is also available on the NHS Choices and PHE websites.