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 recent trends in the level of measles cases across the UK.

There has been a resurgence of measles in England since autumn 2023, initially driven by cases in Birmingham, followed by a large outbreak in London, with small clusters in other regions. This was largely due to a gradual decline in uptake of childhood vaccines over the last decade, including the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. Case counts have followed a downward trajectory from mid-July 2024 with small, localised outbreaks in some regions.

The UK Health Security Agency has worked closely with NHS England and other partners encouraging parents to catch up children with all childhood vaccines, including MMR. In 2024, national MMR catch-up and marketing campaigns were delivered alongside local tailored interventions to improve uptake. The evaluation, published on 29 August 2024, has shown that this work had a positive impact particularly in children from communities with the lowest uptake.

The full evaluation is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/evaluation-of-vaccine-uptake-during-the-2023-to-2024-mmr-catch-up-campaigns-in-england