Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people his Department estimates will require a Winter 2020-21 influenza vaccine; and how many of those vaccines will be available throughout that season.

This winter we expect to offer the seasonal flu vaccine to over 30 million people. On 5 August 2020 we published the Annual Flu Letter Update 2020/21, which set out our ambitions for uptake for all eligible groups. The Annual Flu Letter is available at the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/907149/Letter_annualflu_2020_to_2021_update.pdf

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 supply of the flu vaccines are available this winter.