Official Statistics

Quarterly vaccination coverage statistics for children aged up to 5 years in the UK (COVER programme): October to December 2024

Updated 27 March 2025

Health Protection Report: volume 19 number 3

First published: 27 March 2025

Due to delays in additional data quality checks, data for 14 upper tier local authorities (UTLAs) has been excluded from this publication. Consequently, overall coverage for London, England, and the United Kingdom is not reported. The most recently published data for these geographical levels can be found in the previous quarterly report covering the period to September 2024.

Further detail on the affected UTLAs can be found in Data sources and methodology. This report will be corrected once there is assurance that the excluded data is of appropriate quality to be published as Official Statistics. Data for all other UTLAs and regions outside of London is unaffected.

This report of the cover of vaccination evaluated rapidly (COVER) programme presents quarterly coverage data for children in the UK who reached their first, second, or fifth birthday during the evaluation quarter (October to December 2024).

The full coverage data (which is broken down by country, NHS England local team (configuration as of 1 April 2018) and NHS England region) is now contained in the separate data file accompanying this report along with data by upper tier local authority (UTLA) and UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) region.

As announced in the previous quarterly report, UKHSA is preparing to take over the production and publication of the annual cover of vaccination evaluated rapidly (COVER) programme statistics from NHS England with a plan to publish the 2024 to 2025 annual report in the late summer of 2025. For transparency, UKHSA has published the development plan for the new annual statistical series.

Main points

In comparison with the previous quarter:

• coverage in England excluding London increased by 0.3 percentage points for the 12-month ‘6-in-1’ vaccine; increased by 0.2 percentage points for the 12-month PCV1 vaccine; increased by 0.5 percentage points for the rotavirus vaccine and increased by 0.4 percentage points for the MenB vaccine
• coverage of the first dose of the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine (MMR) measured at 24 months (in children who first became eligible between October and December 2024) decreased by 0.2 percentage points in England excluding London
• in England excluding London, coverage of the first dose of MMR measured in children aged 5 years increased by 0.1 percentage points, largely reflecting vaccinations delivered in October to December 2020
• both Scotland and Wales exceeded the 95% World Health Organization (WHO) target for coverage for both the ‘6-in-1’ and MMR1 vaccines measured in children aged 5 years

Coverage at 12 months

Compared with the previous quarter, in England excluding London, ‘6-in-1’ coverage at 12 months increased by 0.3 percentage points to 92.4%. PCV1 coverage increased by 0.2 percentage points to 94.3%. Rotavirus coverage increased by 0.5 percentage points to 89.8%. MenB coverage increased by 0.4 percentage points to 92.4%.

In Scotland and Wales, coverage was above 91% for all antigens at 12 months. In Northern Ireland coverage was above 87% for all antigens.

Coverage varies by geography. Full coverage data by country, NHS England local team (configuration as of 1 April 2018), NHS England region, UTLA and UKHSA region is contained in the separate data file accompanying this report. Coverage for the ‘6-in-1’ vaccine for quarter 3 2024 to 2025 by UTLA measured at 12 months is presented in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Coverage of the ‘6-in-1’ vaccine measured in children aged 12 months in England for quarter 3 2024 to 2025 by UTLA

Shapefile source (local authority boundaries): Office for National Statistics (ONS)

Coverage of the ‘6-in-1’ vaccine measured in children aged 12 months varies by UTLA. The data underlying Figure 1 is available in the accompanying data file.

Coverage at 24 months

In England excluding London, compared with the previous quarter, ‘6-in-1’ coverage at 24 months increased by 0.3 percentage points to 93.8%; PCV booster coverage decreased by 0.4 percentage points to 89.8%; MMR1 decreased by 0.2 percentage points to 90.5%; MenB coverage decreased by 0.1 percentage points to 89.3%; and Hib/MenC coverage decreased by 0.5 percentage points to 90.2%.

The previous quarter’s coverage is reflected in Quarterly vaccination coverage statistics for children aged up to 5 years in the UK (COVER programme): July to September 2024.

In Scotland and Wales, coverage was above 92% for all antigens at 12 months. In Northern Ireland coverage was above 87% for all antigens.

Coverage varies by country and by local geography. Full coverage data by country, NHS England local team (configuration as of 1 April 2018), NHS England region, UTLA and UKHSA region is contained in the separate data file accompanying this report. Coverage for the MMR1 vaccine for quarter 3 2024 to 2025 by UTLA measured at 24 months is presented in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Coverage of MMR1 vaccine measured in children aged 24 months in England for quarter 3 2024 to 2025 by UTLA

Shapefile source (local authority boundaries): ONS

Coverage of the MMR vaccine measured at 24 months varies by UTLA. The data underlying Figure 2 is available in the accompanying data file.

Coverage in children aged 5 years

For the ‘6-in-1’ vaccine, coverage in England excluding London decreased by 0.2 percentage points to 94.1% and MMR1 increased by 0.1 percentage points to 93.6%. Coverage in children aged 5 years for these vaccines primarily reflects vaccinations delivered 4 years ago as well as catch-up vaccinations in children aged under 5 years.

MMR2 and the preschool booster (DTaP/IPV) are given from age 3 years and 4 months and reflect vaccinations that should have been delivered between April to June 2023, but may also have been given as part of national and regional catch-up efforts.

MMR2 coverage increased by 0.6 percentage points to 87.0% and DTaP/IPV booster increased by 0.6 percentage points to 85.3%. Hib/MenC increased by 0.1 percentage points to 91.0%.

Both Scotland and Wales exceeded the 95% WHO target for coverage for both the ‘6-in-1’ and MMR1 vaccines measured in children aged 5 years, while coverage in Northern Ireland was above 94.0%.

Compared to the previous quarter, MMR1 coverage decreased in the South West (0.2 percentage points). There was an increase in MMR1 coverage in the East Of England (0.2 percentage points), the Midlands (0.2 percentage points), the North West (0.2 percentage points), and the South East (0.4 percentage points).

Coverage of MMR2 also decreased in the South West (0.1 percentage points). Coverage of MMR2 increased in the East Of England (0.4 percentage points), the Midlands (0.4 percentage points), the North East and Yorkshire (0.7 percentage points), the North West (0.9 percentage points), and the South East (0.5 percentage points).

Coverage for the London region has been excluded due to delays in data quality checks in 14 UTLAs.

Coverage varies by geography and country. Full coverage data by country, NHS England local team (configuration as of 1 April 2018), NHS England region, UTLA and UKHSA region is contained in the separate data file accompanying this report. Coverage for the MMR2 vaccine for quarter 3 2024 to 2025 by UTLA measured in children aged 5 years is presented in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Coverage of MMR2 vaccine measured in children aged 5 years in England for quarter 3 2024 to 2025 by UTLA

Shapefile source (local authority boundaries): ONS

Coverage of the MMR2 vaccine measured in children aged 5 years varies by UTLA. The data underlying Figure 3 is available in the accompanying data file.

Neonatal hepatitis B vaccine coverage: England

Due to delays in data quality checks in 14 UTLAs, national coverage was not calculated. Data for all other UTLAs are available in the separate data file accompanying this report.

The quality of neonatal HepB vaccine data is variable and coverage by former local teams can be based on small numbers. As such, comparisons of percentages should be considered alongside denominators. Where an area reported no vaccinated children, a check was made to ensure that this was zero reporting rather than absence of available data.

Neonatal BCG vaccine coverage: England

Due to delays in data quality checks in 14 UTLAs, national coverage was not calculated. For all other local authorities in England, the data is published in the data tables associated with this report.

Data sources and methodology

Data was received from all health boards in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. In England, local teams and Child Health Record Departments provided data for all UTLAs and the associated general practices.

NHS England is performing additional quality and methodology checks on data for 14 UTLAs in London, which have been were excluded from this report.

The 14 UTLAs for which data has been excluded are: Greenwich, Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark, Westminster, Bexley, Brent, Bromley, Ealing, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow.

All English data was collected through NHS Digital’s Strategic Data Collection Service. Individual local authority and GP data, including numerators, denominators, coverage and relevant caveats where applicable, is available in the data tables associated with this report. Data was censored when individual values were fewer than 5.

As part of ongoing data quality assurance in Wales, an improvement in the algorithm used to produce the dataset that the Vaccine Preventable Disease Programme routinely use for COVER reports has been made by Digital Health and Care Wales. This has led to increased completeness of vaccination data and uptake figures in Wales; primarily in children aged 4 years and older.

These statistics are subject to both scheduled revisions and unscheduled corrections and are therefore marked as provisional. In addition to correction of any errors made during the production of these statistics, unscheduled corrections also include the correction of errors later identified within the source data received by UKHSA. Revisions and corrections are made timely and transparently in line with UKHSA’s published Revisions and corrections policy.

Background information

This publication is released on a quarterly basis and aligns with financial quarters. The analysis follows this pattern; any discussion of quarters aligns with the financial year whereby quarter 1 starts in April.

Children who reached their first birthday in this quarter would have been scheduled to receive their primary course (third dose) of the combined diphtheria, tetanus, acellular pertussis vaccine, inactivated poliomyelitis vaccine, haemophilus influenzae type b vaccine and hepatitis B vaccine (DTaP/IPV/Hib/HepB3 or ‘6-in-1’ vaccination) which protects against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), polio, haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) and hepatitis B, and their primary course (second dose) of MenB vaccine which protects against meningococcal group B disease at the age of 16 weeks, February 2024 to April 2024. They would have also been scheduled to receive a single dose of PCV (protecting against pneumococcal disease) and 2 doses of rotavirus vaccine at age 12 weeks, January 2024 to March 2024.

Except for the rotavirus vaccine which is only offered up to 6 months of age, all other vaccines are available to children in the current cohort at any time and would have been captured in this report if given by their first birthday. Children born to hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)-positive mothers who reached their first birthday in this quarter should also have received monovalent hepatitis B vaccine at birth and in children aged 4 weeks.

Children who reached their second birthday would have been scheduled to receive their primary course (third dose) of the ‘6-in-1’ vaccination February 2023 to April 2023. When aged one year, they would have received their first MMR vaccination, a Hib/MenC booster (protecting against haemophilus influenzae type b and meningococcal group C disease), MenB booster and PCV booster in October 2023 to December 2023. Children born to HBsAg-positive mothers, who reached their second birthday in this quarter (born October to December 2022), were scheduled to receive a third dose monovalent hepatitis B vaccine when aged one year.

Children who reached their fifth birthday would have been scheduled to receive their primary course (third dose) of the ‘6-in-1’ vaccination February 2020 to April 2020, their first MMR and the Hib/MenC booster October 2020 to December 2020, their pre-school diphtheria, tetanus, acellular pertussis and polio (DTaP/IPV) booster, and second-dose MMR from February 2023 to April 2023.

Children born in areas where the TB incidence is greater than or equal to 40 per 100,000 or who are born to parents or grandparents from TB endemic areas were eligible for a BCG vaccination at 28 days. Coverage is measured in children aged 3 months and aged 12 months for this selective immunisation.

The full routine immunisation schedule sets out the schedule for all childhood immunisations.

Related statistics

Country-specific data

• Quarterly data for England

• Annual data for England

• Data for Wales

• Data for Scotland

• Data for Northern Ireland

Further information and contact details

The submission and publication dates for this report series are available as is additional information for immunisation practitioners and other health professionals.

Feedback and contact information

For any questions or comments regarding this report, please email cover@ukhsa.gov.uk

Alternatively, you can contact OSR with any comments about how we meet these standards by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.

Official statistics

Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

UKHSA is committed to ensuring that these statistics comply with the Code of Practice for Statistics. This means users can have confidence in the people who produce UKHSA statistics because our statistics are robust, reliable and accurate. Our statistics are regularly reviewed to ensure they support the needs of society for information.

UKHSA has conducted a formal review of these statistics. Following this review, an implementation plan has been developed to continue to improve the trustworthiness, quality, and value of these statistics. Key continuous improvements made will be highlighted within future releases of these statistics for transparency.