Simon Burns – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Simon Burns on 2014-06-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the total cost to the NHS was of providing free flu vaccinations in each of the last four years for which figures are available.

Jane Ellison

NHS England spent a total of £251 million on immunisation programmes in 2013-14. Of this, £89 million is identifiable as relating to the purchase of flu vaccines for adults and the administration of flu vaccines for both adults and children.

Vaccines for the national childhood immunisation programme, including for childhood flu immunisation from 2013-14, are purchased and managed by Public Health England on behalf of the Department and are not a cost for the National Health Service. The cost of the vaccine and its storage and distribution are commercially confidential.

Data for NHS spend for the years prior to 2013-14 is not held centrally.