Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to prepare for possible future pandemics.

Ensuring the United Kingdom is prepared for a future pandemic is a top priority for the Government, and we are embedding lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic in our approach to pandemic preparedness. We aim to have flexible, adaptable and scalable capabilities that can respond to any infectious disease or other threat, rather than rely on plans for specific threats.

In the Autumn 2024 budget, the Chancellor announced £460 million of investment to strengthen the UK’s pandemic preparedness, including replenishing personal protective equipment (PPE), vaccine and medicines stockpiles.

Our stockpiles for a potential future health emergency cover a range of clinical countermeasures, including antivirals, antibiotics, medical consumables, PPE and hygiene consumables.

In autumn 2025, the Department and UK Health Security Agency are conducting Exercise PEGASUS, a national exercise on the UK’s preparedness for a pandemic. It aims to assess the UK’s preparedness, capabilities, and response arrangements in the context of a pandemic arising from a novel infectious disease and involves all regions and nations of the UK and thousands of participants.

The outcomes of the exercise will inform how we approach our pandemic strategy going forward.