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 correlation between falling rates of vaccination for measles, mumps and rubella and the increased incidence of those conditions.

There has been an increase in cases of measles since the end of 2017 with close to 1,000 cases reported in 2018. However, the majority of these cases (628/966, 65%) are in individuals aged less than one year old and over 15 years i.e. those not in recently vaccinated age cohorts. Data is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/measles-mumps-and-rubella-laboratory-confirmed-cases-in-england-2018

An increase in mumps activity was observed in England in the first quarter (Q1) of 2019 with 795 laboratory confirmed mumps infections. Almost half (352/795, 44%) of the cases in Q1 were in unvaccinated individuals. This data can be viewed at the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/804024/hpr1819_mmr2.pdf

The World Health Organization confirmed that the United Kingdom had eliminated rubella in 2015. Between 2013-18 there were only 10 laboratory confirmed cases in England. This data can be viewed at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rubella-confirmed-cases/rubella-notifications-and-confirmed-cases-by-oral-fluid-testing-in-england-2013-to-2014-by-quarter

Nearly all these cases have been in individuals born abroad and were not eligible to receive rubella containing vaccine in United Kingdom.