Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has for international collaboration on research into the covid-19 vaccine response in immunocompromised groups.

Our investment in the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) supports ongoing vaccine research and development to respond to an evolving virus. Whilst there are no current plans for United Kingdom Government-initiated international research into the COVID-19 vaccine response on immunocompromised groups, it is important to emphasise that the research community is truly global in its collaboration and studies, those planned or published, will be shared, discussed and closely scrutinised by international researchers in this field and vice versa.

UK Research and Innovation is funding research on vaccine responses in groups of immune-suppressed individuals specifically, as part of its support for the OCTAVE study. This study includes those with inflammatory disorders, high risk cancer patient groups, and patients with severe kidney and liver disease.