Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his Department’s paper A review of the Vaccine Taskforce, published on 29 August 2023, what funds the Office for Life Sciences has to invest in additional vaccine production capacity in the UK in order to achieve the onshoring programme objective set for the Vaccines Taskforce.

Through the Vaccine Taskforce, over £405 million was invested in the United Kingdom’s vaccine manufacturing capabilities across several modalities, to ensure a robust response to COVID-19 and future health emergencies. In December 2022 the Government signed a ten-year strategic partnership with Moderna which will have the capacity to produce up to 250 million cutting-edge mRNA vaccines per year onshore in the event of a pandemic. In May this year, the Government announced a Biomanufacturing Fund, worth up to £38 million, to incentivise investment in commercial-scale vaccines and biotherapeutics manufacturing.