Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to increase the uptake of vaccines amongst older people.

Immunisation plays a critical role in preventative healthcare and in promoting health and well-being across the life course, particularly in older adults when protecting against flu, pneumococcal disease and shingles is so important.

The factors that affect uptake of vaccination are complex and vary over time and by locality. Public Health England, along with other public health organisations and researchers, has worked to understand the relative impact of factors that are believed to affect uptake rates.

Because of the breadth of issues that can affect vaccine uptake, the Department is working closely with NHS England and NHS Improvement and Public Health England to develop a 10 year vaccine strategy to be published early in 2020, focused on improving immunisation uptake rates across all ages.