Paulette Hamilton

My hon. Friend is passionate about the administration of vaccinations, and he has asked quite a lot of questions. I absolutely agree with them all, but I will focus on his questions relating to health visitors and to having more of a strategy on vaccinations. I hope that everybody present has read the report, which states very clearly that health visitors have massive caseloads of over 750. That means they are not able to give children the time that they need. We have recommended that we employ 1,000 extra health visitors, but we have also noted in the report that health visitors have a statutory right to visit children five times until they get to the age of two and a half. We have said that we should increase that to a minimum of six visits, which is what already happens in Wales. The minimum number of visits in Scotland is 11, and I think it is nine in Northern Ireland—I apologise if I have got that figure wrong. England has the lowest number of visits in the United Kingdom, and it needs to be increased. I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend that we need to have more of a focus on vaccine levels, and to get the new strategy in place. Without a strategy, we are not going to get what we need in this area as quickly as we need it to happen.