Employers in the health system are responsible for ensuring that their staff are trained to the required standards to deliver appropriate treatment for patients.

Care providers are also required to ensure staff receive the support, training, professional development, supervision, and appraisal necessary to carry out their duties safely and competently.

To support providers to do so, the Department provides reimbursement towards the cost of training and qualifications through the Adult Social Care Learning and Support Scheme, backed by up to £12 million in funding this financial year.

The UKHSA (UK Health Security Agency) Healthcare-Associated Infection (HCAI) Data (public HCAI statistics) does not currently publish routine counts of hospital-acquired pneumonia deaths. Pneumonia is not one of the standard HCAIs in the UKHSA dashboard.

The Office of National Statistics is the official source of mortality statistics for England. More information is available at the following link:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/methodologies/mortalitystatisticsinenglandandwalesqmi

The Office for Health Improvements and Disparities (OHID) also provide details of mortality indicators that assess outcomes across a range of causes of death in England. These are available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/mortality-profile-december-2025-update/mortality-profile-statistical-commentary-december-2025

NHS England currently has no campaigns designed to raise awareness of the symptoms of pneumonia. The main ‘awareness’ engine of the National Health Service is the NHS website, which holds clear information on pneumonia symptoms, with further information available at the following link:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/pneumonia/

The NHS is focusing on protecting those at most risk of pneumonia, including via the provision of pneumococcal vaccines, with further information available at the following link:

https://www.nhs.uk/vaccinations/pneumococcal-vaccine/

10 patients died from hospital acquired pneumonia at the Great Western Hospital in Swindon in December 2024. Figures for January 2025 and February 2025 cannot be provided until May 2025.

We set out comprehensive plans for winter preparation in the urgent and emergency recovery plan. Similar to what I said a moment ago, this includes making much better use of community schemes, particularly those targeted at the frail elderly, and making better use of technology through schemes such as virtual wards. It has also put additional bed capacity into hospitals, with more than £1 billion of funding for 5,000 more permanent beds to help alleviate the pressure on bed occupancy and get flow through hospitals, which is so important to addressing the pressure on ambulances.

The number of deaths increased by 13.5% in December 2022, particularly around influenza and pneumonia—up by 26.2%—so York’s public health team want to know what the Government are going to do about winter planning and when.

It is not possible to assess the trends in the prevalence of lipoid pneumonia since the introduction of vaping. This is because there is insufficient data to identify this trend.

The evidence of respiratory risk from vaping is the subject of a Systematic Review in Chapter 10 of the report Nicotine Vaping in England 2022.

From 31 October to 6 November, influenza positivity amongst patients tested for respiratory illnesses remained at 6.6% in England. The weekly ‘National flu and COVID-19 surveillance reports: 2022 to 2023 season’ is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/national-flu-and-covid-19-surveillance-reports-2022-to-2023-season

There is no surveillance of community acquired pneumonia in the United Kingdom, as this is a clinical diagnosis which can be caused by many bacteria and viruses.

The National Health Service is increasing bed capacity and staffing, maximising the use of virtual wards and is considering acute respiratory infection hubs to support same day assessment.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) plans to commence the update of the guideline in summer 2022. NICE advises that for managing COVID-19 pneumonia and identifying and treating bacterial pneumonia secondary to COVID-19, healthcare professionals should follow recommendations in ‘COVID-19 rapid guideline: managing COVID-19’. For guidance on managing bacterial pneumonia not secondary to COVID-19, healthcare professionals should follow NICE’s guidelines on ‘Pneumonia (community-acquired): antimicrobial prescribing’ and ‘Pneumonia (hospital-acquired): antimicrobial prescribing’. No specific assessment has been made of the impact of the withdrawal of ‘Pneumonia in adults: diagnosis and management’.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) plans to commence the update of the guideline in summer 2022. NICE advises that for managing COVID-19 pneumonia and identifying and treating bacterial pneumonia secondary to COVID-19, healthcare professionals should follow recommendations in ‘COVID-19 rapid guideline: managing COVID-19’. For guidance on managing bacterial pneumonia not secondary to COVID-19, healthcare professionals should follow NICE’s guidelines on ‘Pneumonia (community-acquired): antimicrobial prescribing’ and ‘Pneumonia (hospital-acquired): antimicrobial prescribing’. No specific assessment has been made of the impact of the withdrawal of ‘Pneumonia in adults: diagnosis and management’.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have, therefore, asked the Authority to respond.

Letter from the National Statistician

Professor Sir Ian Diamond | National Statistician

9 November 2021

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking about plans to record the causation of excess deaths in winter 2021-22; and whether COVID-19, influenza and community or hospital acquired pneumonia will be separately identified in those statistics (69656).

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reports on ‘Excess Winter Mortality for England and Wales’ [1] annually. Excess winter mortality is estimated by comparing the winter months of December to March with the average of the four-month periods before and after. The next report on excess winter mortality is due for release on 26 November 2021, and will provide final estimates for the 2019 to 2020 winter period and provisional estimates for the 2020 to 2021 winter period. Corresponding figures for winter 2021/22 will be published in autumn 2022.

The data published on excess winter mortality will include estimates both including and excluding COVID-19. The provisional estimates for winter 2020/21 will include a specific estimate for deaths with an underlying cause of COVID-19 and new breakdowns by place of death. Cause of death groupings reported in addition to COVID-19 will be respiratory diseases, Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, circulatory diseases, and injury and poisoning.

Separately, the regular report on ‘Deaths registered weekly in England and Wales’ [2] allows excess deaths each week to be calculated relative to the average for the corresponding week in the years 2015-19. Weekly figures are provided for deaths by all causes aggregated, and for respiratory diseases, influenza and pneumonia, and COVID-19. The information held by the ONS is based on the particulars recorded in the process of death registration, and does not specify the place where an infectious disease was acquired.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Sir Ian Diamond

1. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/excesswintermortalityinenglandandwales/previousReleases

2. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsregisteredweeklyinenglandandwalesprovisional/latest

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has not made an assessment of potential community-acquired pneumonia this winter.

Whilst UKHSA has not made projections of hospital-onset infections for winter 2021/22, routinely monitors and reports healthcare-associated infection in the general population and co/secondary infections in COVID-19 patients.

The Government is committed to tackling endemic diseases in animals in the UK. The vaccination of livestock against pneumonia is a major means of controlling pneumonia in cattle and is best coordinated by farmers with the assistance of their local veterinarians. This approach enables development of a targeted vaccination programme for each farm. The promotion of such vaccinations is conducted by industry bodies and trade organisations, which are well placed to provide relevant and timely communications to their members.

Since the start of the pandemic, we have ensured the following groups were prioritised:

- all patients in critical care for pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) or flu like illness;

- all other patients requiring admission to hospital for pneumonia, ARDS or flu like illness; and

- where an outbreak has occurred in a residential or care setting, for example in long-term care facility or prisons.

Testing for COVID-19 in clinical settings is based on the expertise and judgement of those delivering care. Those patients presenting in hospital with respiratory symptoms such as pneumonia are assessed by a clinician who decides if it is appropriate to test for COVID-19 as part of their care. Those recovering from respiratory conditions in the community should be vigilant and should they experience any of the three main coronavirus symptoms, they should seek a test as soon as possible.

Guidance published by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence advises that antibiotic treatments for community acquired pneumonia are ineffective for COVID-19 related viral pneumonia unless there is a bacterial co-infection though the guidance allows for antibiotic prescription in certain circumstances, accommodating local antimicrobial prescribing preferences.

The Government continues to hold stockpiles of medicines, including those used in the treatment of community acquired pneumonia, to cope in a range of scenarios, and robust contingency planning continues to ensure that the country is prepared for a possible second peak of COVID-19 infections.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have therefore asked the Authority to respond.