London childhood vaccine uptake inches forward, gaps persist
London’s routine immunisation picture tightened but still trails England overall, as 2024–2025 delivery pushed coverage upwards in some boroughs while persistent shortfalls held back measles protection across the capital in the same period.
Against national performance, London’s measles–mumps–rubella first-dose coverage by the second birthday sat lower than England’s rate, with local variation leaving pockets of markedly reduced protection that skew equity and keep transmission risk uneven.
Operational fixes now centre on access—out-of-hours clinics, school-aged catch-up sessions and helpline booking—paired with interpreter and accessibility support in practices serving multilingual households, aiming to convert booked appointments into completed vaccinations among harder-to-reach families.
Recent surveillance underlines the stakes: confirmed measles activity in 2025 concentrated in major urban regions including London, reinforcing the link between coverage rates, timely second doses and outbreak control as services target avoided delay between invitations and jabs.
Numbers in brief: London MMR first-dose coverage at 24 months reported around four in five children in 2024–2025, England averaged 88.9% for the same measure, borough lows dipped to the mid-60s, and England logged hundreds of confirmed measles cases in 2025 alongside incremental gains from catch-up campaigns.
Sources, window, method: UKHSA COVER annual and quarterly publications for 2024–2025, UKHSA measles surveillance for January–October 2025, and supporting national immunisation series; analysis compares London region and England using published counts and coverage rates, focusing on access and equity.
