Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will urgently commission research into the Beta variant of covid-19.

Public Health England has published a paper into the Beta variant, ‘Evidence of escape of SARS-CoV-2 variant B.1.351 from natural and vaccine-induced sera’, which is available at the following link:

https://researchportal.phe.gov.uk/en/publications/evidence-of-escape-of-sars-cov-2-variant-b1351-from-natural-and-v

The National Institute for Health Research has funded studies looking at specific aspects of variants of concern, including the Beta variant. The studies are in progress and details will be published in due course.