A travel clinic wants to know what you have had. So does a new employer, a university, or a doctor in another country. You go looking for your vaccination certificate, and find there is no such thing.
In the UK there is no single national statement that lists every vaccine you have had. Your history is held in a few places: mostly your GP record, partly the NHS App, and for children, the red book and local child health services. This guide covers where to look, how it differs in Scotland and Wales, and what to do when a vaccine you know you had is not there.
Disclosure
I am a doctor, and I founded exora, a personal health record app. It appears once, near the end. Everything before that works whatever you use.
The short version
- Start with your GP surgery. Your GP record is where most of your vaccinations are recorded.
- In England, try the NHS App. Select Vaccinations, then Your vaccinations. Whether you see it depends on your GP surgery.
- For a child under 5, look in the red book first. Then the GP, then your local Child Health Information Service.
- In Scotland, try MyCare.scot for some vaccines, then your GP, then your local NHS immunisation team.
- If a vaccine is missing, ask the place that gave it, or your GP.
- You can ask for a copy of your records with a subject access request. It is usually free.
- The NHS COVID Pass has closed. Your COVID-19 vaccination record is in the NHS App instead.
Your GP record
For most people, the GP record is the closest thing to a full vaccination history. Vaccines given at the surgery are recorded there. Vaccines given somewhere else, such as a pharmacy, a school or a private clinic, may not have reached it.
The NHS website’s advice is simple. If you are unsure what you have had, use the NHS App or ask your GP. NHS inform in Scotland says the same for anything outside the vaccines it lists online: contact your GP first.
When you ask, be specific. “Can I have a printout of my immunisation history?” is a request a surgery can usually deal with quickly. If you need it in a particular form, for example a signed letter for a trip, ask whether there is a fee. For travel, the BMA says practices are able to charge for travel-related requests for information, though they are not obliged to. A plain copy of your own records is a different request, covered below, and is usually free.
The NHS App (England)
The NHS App can show your vaccinations. The NHS App help pages say to select Vaccinations, then Your vaccinations. Three caveats, all from that page:
- It is not available for everyone, and depends on your GP surgery. If you do not see it, try Appointment notes and other updates.
- Private vaccinations may not show.
- If something is wrong or missing, contact your GP surgery.
So a short or empty list in the app does not mean you were never vaccinated. It may only mean that part of your record is not shown online.
COVID-19 vaccinations
COVID-19 vaccines have their own section: Vaccinations, then COVID-19 vaccinations. If you think a dose is missing or wrong, the NHS App help says to contact the site where you had it. Contact your GP instead if that site has closed, if the dose was more than 365 days ago, if you have more than one NHS number, or if you have had or are planning gender reassignment. A dose in the last 5 working days may not show yet. If you had a COVID-19 vaccine privately, ask the provider for evidence.
The NHS COVID Pass
If you are looking for the NHS COVID Pass, it no longer exists. GOV.UK says the NHS COVID Pass service has closed, and its guidance was withdrawn on 8 March 2024. If a country or employer still asks about COVID-19 vaccination, the record in the NHS App is where your doses are shown.
Your child’s vaccination record
For young children, there are usually three places to look.
The red book. Shortly before or after birth, parents are given a personal child health record, usually with a red cover. The NHS website says the baby clinic and GP use it to record your child’s weight and height, vaccinations and other important information, and to take it with you every time. If the vaccination pages are filled in, they are often the quickest answer. Our guide to your child’s red book covers the rest of it.
Your child’s GP record. If you have parental responsibility for a child under 16, you can ask your child’s GP surgery for family and carer access in the NHS App. Once it is set up, you can see test results and vaccinations, among other things. Access changes as children get older, and usually ends at 16; our guide to family health records in the UK explains the ages.
The Child Health Information Service (CHIS). In England, each area has a CHIS. It is an NHS-commissioned service that collates immunisation and screening data for children aged 0 to 19 in its area into a single child health record, and alerts health professionals when a child has missed one. Each area runs its own, so the contact details are local: search for your area’s CHIS, or ask your health visitor or GP which one covers you.
If you are not sure whether your child is up to date, the NHS website’s vaccination schedule shows which vaccines are offered at which age in England. It changes from time to time, and the current version includes the MMRV vaccine with doses that depend on your child’s date of birth, so check the website rather than an older printout. If you think something was missed, the same page says to contact your GP surgery: you can still catch up on most vaccines.
Scotland
Scotland has its own online route. NHS inform says MyCare.scot shows some of your vaccination history, for these vaccines:
- COVID-19
- flu
- adult pneumococcal
- shingles
- adult RSV
- MenB
For other vaccines, NHS inform says to contact your GP first, and if they cannot help, your local NHS immunisation team. For a child, it says to check the red book first, and if you do not have one or it has gone missing, to contact your local NHS immunisation team. The same page lists the contact details for each health board.
Wales
In Wales, the NHS Wales App can show your GP record. Your practice can give you a summary record, which usually covers medicines and allergies, and you can ask for a more detailed record, which can include immunisations. The app’s help pages are clear that it is the practice’s decision whether to approve that, and how much you can see. If the app does not show your vaccinations, ask the practice.
For Northern Ireland, I could not confirm a national online route from an official page, so start with your GP practice.
Asking for a copy: the subject access request
If you need the whole thing on paper, or the surgery is slow, you have a legal right to a copy of your records under the UK GDPR. It is called a subject access request, and it works across the UK. It is free unless a request is manifestly unfounded or excessive, or you ask for further copies, and the organisation must respond within one month, extendable in some cases.
You can ask for just the immunisation part of your GP record. A narrow request is easier to answer than “everything”, and gets you what you need. Our UK medical records guide walks through how to make one and what to do if you are refused.
If a vaccine is missing or wrong
Records go wrong in ordinary ways. A vaccine given at a pharmacy was never passed to the GP. A dose was recorded under an old surname or a second NHS number. A school vaccination sits with the local child health service but not the surgery.
What to do:
- Go to whoever gave it. For COVID-19 vaccines the NHS App help says this directly. For others, the place that gave the vaccine is the one with the original note.
- Then your GP surgery. The NHS App help says to contact your surgery about anything incorrect or missing.
- Bring evidence. A red book page, a pharmacy receipt, a clinic letter or a vaccination card helps the surgery update your record.
- Do not assume a missing record means a missing vaccine. Whether to repeat a dose is a clinical decision for your GP or nurse, not something to settle by guessing.
Vaccines you had abroad
If you grew up or lived in another country, your early vaccines are probably not on your UK record at all. Bring whatever you have when you register with a GP, or afterwards: a vaccination booklet, a certificate, a statement from the other country’s register. Ask the surgery whether they can add it to your record. If it is not in English, our guide to translating medical records covers when a GP will need a translation. If you are about to leave the UK instead, get your record before you go; our guide to moving countries with your medical records explains why.
And if you need it for a trip, take it to your travel health appointment. Our guide to travelling abroad with a medical condition covers the rest of the preparation.
Where exora fits, and where it does not
The problem with a UK vaccination history is that it is in pieces: a GP printout, a screenshot from the NHS App, a red book, a card from a pharmacy, a booklet from another country. exora is a personal health record app, and it puts those pieces in one place. exora is free to start, with an optional membership.
You upload what you have, such as PDFs, photos or scans, and exora reads them for you, with a reading system built for medical records. Each vaccine is read into one record with its dates, linked back to the page it came from. Vaccines a document lists as due are kept as due, not given. Turn on the schedule and exora compares the record with the national schedule, including the UK’s, and shows what is overdue, due soon and coming up; the phone app can remind you before a vaccination is due. Each child can have their own profile, with their own record and schedule. There is more on the immunisation records feature page.
Where it does not help, plainly:
- It is not your official record. Your GP record is. A vaccine missing from it still needs the surgery, or whoever gave it, to fix it at the source.
- It can misread. The reading is automated, so check anything that matters against the original. That is why every vaccine links back to it.
- No NHS connection. exora has no link to the NHS App, MyCare.scot, the NHS Wales App, your GP’s system, CHIS or any NHS service, and no NHS approval or UK health-data certification. It works only from the documents you add.
- Your data is stored in Sydney, Australia, outside the UK. How we handle it is on our security page; read it before you upload anything.
- It is not medical advice. It does not tell you which vaccines you or your child need. Your GP, practice nurse or health visitor does.
Sources
- NHS App help: viewing your vaccinations (where to find them, depends on your GP surgery, private vaccinations, who to contact)
- NHS App help: checking your COVID-19 vaccination record
- GOV.UK: NHS COVID Pass (service closed, guidance withdrawn 8 March 2024)
- NHS website: travel vaccinations (check what you have had using the NHS App or your GP)
- BMA: travel medication and vaccinations (fees for travel-related requests)
- NHS website: NHS vaccinations and when to have them
- NHS website: your baby’s health and development reviews (the red book)
- NHS website: family and carer access for children under 16
- NHS South, Central and West: Child Health Information Services (what a CHIS does)
- NHS inform: your vaccination history (MyCare.scot, GP, local immunisation teams, red book)
- NHS Wales App help: GP health record (summary and detailed record, immunisations)
- UK GDPR, Article 15 (right of access) and Article 12 (free of charge)
- Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, section 76 (one-month time limit)
Claims about NHS services, apps and your right of access are sourced to the NHS website, NHS inform, NHS Wales, GOV.UK and legislation.gov.uk, linked inline, and were checked on 9 November 2026. Services and apps change; this page will be updated as they do. This article is general information, not medical or legal advice. How exora handles your information is in our privacy policy.
