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 effect of the covid-19 outbreak on the take up of MMR vaccinations in (a) York and (b) the UK.

A Public Health England (PHE) evaluation of the early impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing measures on the routine childhood vaccinations in England shows that measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination counts fell from February 2020, and in the three weeks after introduction of social distancing measures were 19.8% lower (95% CI -20.7 to -18.9%) than the same period in 2019, before improving in mid-April. PHE is working closely with partners on a recovery plan to catch up any children who missed out on MMR and continues to monitor and assess the situation closely. The full evaluation is published at the following link:

https://www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.19.2000848

Data is not available for York, but data regarding the MMR vaccine uptake throughout the United Kingdom and England is available at upper tier local authority level and experimental quarterly vaccination coverage at general practice level. The latest data for January to March 2020 can be viewed at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/cover-of-vaccination-evaluated-rapidly-cover-programme-2019-to-2020-quarterly-data