Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to allocate funding to support research into next generation covid-19 vaccinations that can be administered orally and nasally; and if he will make statement.

The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The NIHR and UK Research and Innovation have co-funded research on oral and nasal ingestion of the COVID-19 vaccine. Approximately £580,000 was awarded to Imperial College London for a study on two candidate vaccines administered to the respiratory tract. The NIHR is also providing infrastructure support to two phase one studies in this area through the University of Oxford and Imperial College London. The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including alternative vaccine delivery methods.