Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to help protect industry from potential risks posed by future pandemics; and if he will increase research and development science spending to help reduce those risks.

The UK is at the forefront of pandemic preparedness research, including the development of advanced vaccines, building on the success of the Oxford AstraZeneca Vaccine. This includes allocating £354 million to life sciences manufacturing through the Global Britain Investment Fund to strengthen UK vaccine manufacturing resilience.

BEIS stands ready to support businesses through any future pandemic, tailored to the circumstances at the time. We are increasing public R&D spending to £20 billion per annum by 2024-25, reaffirming BEIS’ record £39.8 billion allocation to 2024-25. This includes £25.1 billion for UK Research and Innovation, which provides significant funding for pandemic preparedness.