Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, with reference to declining immunisation rates in the UK, what level of prioritisation the Department of Health and Social Care and the UK Health Security Agency are giving to the adoption of new immunisation programmes with high uptake.

The introduction and adoption of new immunisation programmes and achieving high uptake across all immunisation programmes remains a high priority for the Government. We achieve high uptake for both life-course and seasonal vaccinations, with over 90% for pre-school diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis and among the highest in the world for flu vaccination. The NHS COVID-19 vaccination programme has been the biggest vaccine drive in the history of the National Health Service, implementing the largest volume of new vaccines in the shortest time, and repeatedly with boosters. 157.5 million COVID-19 vaccinations were delivered in England from December 2020 to the end of January 2024. However, over the last decade, performance across routine immunisation programmes has been in decline and continued variation in uptake and coverage between different communities reflects wider health inequalities.

In response to these challenges, the NHS vaccination strategy builds on lessons learnt from the pandemic and the success of our routine immunisation programmes. It aims to maximise uptake and coverage of vaccinations across all communities, improving uptake to save more lives.