§ Tim LoughtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what measures his Department is taking to contact parents of children who have not received(a) the MMR vaccination and (b) appropriate single injections to urge them to have their children inoculated. [53270]
§ Yvette Cooper[holding answer 29 April 2002]: In February the Department held a meeting of immunisation co-ordinators at which they were all asked to ensure the accuracy of their databases on MMR immunisations, especially for those children appearing not to have received this vaccination. A special initiative had already been undertaken in London districts to identify children who were apparently unimmunised. The 20 districts with the lowest MMR coverage have been asked specifically to concentrate efforts on identifying unimmunised 876W children or those who have had incomplete courses of single vaccines, clarify their immunisation status, and provide information to their parents, if so wished.