Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data his Department holds on the number of children reported to have had lead poisoning in each year since 2016.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) coordinates the Lead in Children Exposure Surveillance System (LEICSS), a passive surveillance system covering England, which aims to identify elevated blood lead concentrations in children under 15 years old.

The following table shows the LEICSS data on case numbers between 2016 and 2023, inclusive:

Note: Between 2016 to 2020, the annual number of cases ranged between 33 and 49. From 2021 there was a marked increase in the number of cases. The steep rise in reported cases from 2021 onwards is due to a change in the case definition in our surveillance system.