Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has in place in the event of community transmission of a covid-19 variant with a high level of vaccine escape.

We have governance arrangements in place and tools available in the event of transmission of a dangerous variant of concern with vaccine escape qualities. This includes the local action committee command structure and outbreak management protocols within the Contain Framework, which act as routes to provide support and interventions where required. The United Kingdom’s world leading genomic sequencing programme allows us to quickly identify and respond to any new variants and we are building onshore capability to rapidly develop new vaccines if required.