Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the UK has made adequate provision for pandemic influenza.

The United Kingdom is acknowledged by the World Health Organization as being amongst the leaders worldwide in preparing for an influenza pandemic. The UK adopts a “defence in depth” approach to pandemic planning, as outlined in the UK Influenza Pandemic Preparedness Strategy 2011, holding stockpiles of medical countermeasures, including antiviral medicines and antibiotics, to be used in the event of a future pandemic. The Government will be conducting a national exercise later this year to test UK pandemic influenza preparedness arrangements.

The UK supports international efforts to detect the emergence of a pandemic and early assessment of the virus, by sharing scientific information and regularly reviewing research and development needs to enhance pandemic preparedness. Plans to respond to an influenza pandemic are continually reviewed in the light of available scientific evidence.