Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 23 May 2023 to Question 186387 on Cancer: Vaccination and with reference to the oral contribution of the Secretary of State for Scotland on 29 March 2023, Official Report, column 1000, if he will meet the hon. Member for Edinburgh South to discuss cancer vaccine trials.

In May this year, the Government published its response to Lord O’Shaughnessy’s Review into Commercial Clinical Trials in the United Kingdom. The response accepted the recommendations from the O'Shaughnessy Review and identified five priority commitments to take forwards in the immediate term, backed by £121 million, all aimed at speeding up the set up and running of commercial clinical trials in the UK.

The UK signed a Memorandum of Understanding with BioNTech in January, bringing their innovative research and development to the whole of the UK. Through the agreement, UK cancer patients will have access to trials exploring personalised mRNA cancer therapies. Ministers regularly meet with parliamentary colleagues across a range of health issues, meeting requests should be sent direct to the Department.