Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, on what date the decision was made to sell the Vaccine Manufacturing Innovation Centre; and for what reason that decision was made.

The Government’s strategy for vaccine manufacturing and innovation can be found in the Life Sciences Vision policy paper, published in July 2021.

Officials are working closely with the Vaccine Manufacturing Innovation Centre (VMIC) and other third parties to ensure that the UK retains a strong domestic vaccine manufacturing capability to contribute to our response to COVID-19 and resilience to other future health emergencies. At present, these discussions are commercially sensitive.

The National Security and Investment Act 2021, which comes into force fully on 4 January, gives the Secretary of State powers to intervene in acquisitions of control of certain entities and assets that have given rise to or may give rise to a risk to national security. In addition, the Enterprise Act 2002 was amended in 2020 to allow the Secretary of State to intervene in mergers and takeovers on the public interest grounds of maintaining in the United Kingdom the capability to combat, and to mitigate the effects of, public health emergencies.