Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits for pandemic preparedness of mapping the UK’s immunological research capacity.

The Vaccine Development and Evaluation Centre (VDEC) has been established to strengthen UK Health Security Agency’s (UKHSA) work in vaccine discovery, development and evaluation, with the aim of strengthening preparedness for future pandemics and other high consequence infectious diseases.

Through UKHSA, the Government works on an ongoing basis with academia and industry to understand capacity and capability needs for pandemic preparedness and wider health threats. The UKHSA’s strategic approach to pandemic preparedness includes understanding and regularly reviewing UKHSA’s research capacity.