Danny Beales

I thank my hon. Friend for today’s statement and for her excellent work in chairing the Committee’s important inquiry. It is much appreciated. There is much to welcome in this report. Colleagues have already touched on a number of the measures, so I will focus in particular on vaccination. The state of vaccination rates in this country shocked me during the inquiry. I think we all came to accept the success, the prevalence and the uptake of vaccinations, but now, for a number of reasons—including disinformation, some of which comes from elements in this Chamber—vaccination rates have been declining across the board for many years. This week, the UK lost its measles elimination status, which is shameful and an indictment of the situation in which we have got ourselves. In the light of that, does my hon. Friend agree that we need to accelerate things such as the health visitor pilot for delivering vaccinations? We heard positive things about that in the Committee, but progress has been slow. Does she agree that we need to accelerate those actions already in train? Does she agree that we should restore the World Health Organisation target of 95% vaccination uptake nationally? Finally, does she accept that the last Government’s vaccination strategy, developed in 2023, has clearly failed, considering where we are today? Does she think that the Government need to look again at a new national vaccination strategy so that we can get back to where we once were and then make more progress, ensuring that every child has the vaccination they need to protect them and to live a healthy and fulfilling life?