Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what analysis the Department of Health and Social Care has made of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the take-up of routine childhood vaccinations.

Preliminary data between weeks 1-17 in 2020 indicates that whilst there was an initial decrease in the number of pre-school vaccinations delivered in primary care during the early weeks of the pandemic compared with the same period of 2019, the situation rapidly stabilised and recovered.

Providers of school aged immunisations, which were impacted by school closures, are now working with NHS England and NHS Improvement commissioners to catch up those vaccinations that have been delayed. Programmes delivered through schools have been rescheduled as schools have re-opened. School-age vaccination programmes are delivered at different times throughout the academic year, and so local variation will be seen in recovery.