asked Her Majesty's Government:

What percentage of the prison population has received a full course of hepatitis B vaccine. [HL4874]

Offender Health commissions the Health Protection Agency (HPA) to conduct a national surveillance programme on coverage of hepatitis B vaccine within the prison estate in England & Wales. Nearly 80 per cent of all prisons voluntarily provide data to the HPA monthly. About 50 prisons (over one-third of the total estate) provided complete surveillance data monthly to the HPA in the first quarter of 2008. During that period, there were over 23,600 new receptions to the reporting prisons: 4,274 were identified as previously vaccinated against hepatitis B on reception, and a further 5,175 were vaccinated during the first month of reception. The range of coverage was between 27 and 36 per cent in this sample.