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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will proactively plan for and stock the Novavax and Johnson and Johnson vaccines, pending the completion of their clinical trials and UK approval process.

The UK Government has secured early access to 407 million vaccines doses through agreements with seven separate vaccine developers. This includes agreements with Novavax for 60 million doses and Janssen for 30 million doses.

Subject to regulatory approval by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), which will review and analyse the relevant data to see if the vaccines meet their strict standards of safety and effectiveness, these vaccines are expected to be delivered in the second half of this year.

The Government is committed to ensuring access to vaccines as soon as is safely possible, which is why it is considering all options to help achieve this objective.