Influenza: Vaccination

(asked on 16th September 2020) - View Source

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 ensure that it (a) secures and (b) maintains an adequate supply of the influenza vaccine for population groups eligible for that vaccine in Winter 2020-21.


Answered by
Jo Churchill Portrait
Jo Churchill
Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 1st October 2020

The manufacturing of the flu vaccines is a complex biological process. In February, each year, the World Health Organization makes recommendations on the composition of the flu vaccine for the northern hemisphere based on its international surveillance programme. It takes six to eight months to manufacture the vaccines and following regulatory clearance they start to become available to service providers at the start of the flu season in September. The flu vaccine is currently available and will continue to be supplied throughout the winter.

In relation to the supply of vaccine for the adult programme, general practitioners and pharmacists are directly responsible for ordering flu vaccine from suppliers which are used to deliver the national flu programme to adults. In addition, the Department has procured additional doses of seasonal flu vaccine to ensure more flu vaccines are available this winter.

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