Wednesday 2nd December 2020

(3 years, 11 months ago)

Commons Chamber
Read Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Matt Hancock Portrait Matt Hancock
- Hansard - - - Excerpts

It is very important that tracing happens, and the data, as the right hon. Gentleman knows, is fed through to councils where that data agreement has been put in place. The best approach is for councils and the national system to work well together.

Andrew Griffith Portrait Andrew Griffith (Arundel and South Downs) (Con)
- Hansard - -

Will the Health Secretary and his colleagues accept my congratulations on making sure the UK is one of the first countries in the world to have a deployable vaccine? Does he agree that businesses and their employees in the UK pharmaceutical sector, which invests over £4 billion a year of private risk capital, are heroes every bit as much as our wonderful NHS employees on the frontline?

Matt Hancock Portrait Matt Hancock
- Hansard - - - Excerpts

Absolutely, and my hon. Friend gives the lie to this idea that we should somehow split public and private. I want to pay tribute, on behalf of all those in the House who believe in private enterprise, to everybody: the major global pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer and AstraZeneca, the small entrepreneurial start-ups such as BioNTech and all those who have come to the aid of the nation. If they do it and make a profit, if they do that to save lives, that is fine by me.