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 support (a) Public Health England and (b) its replacement the National Institute for Health Protection to tackle the covid-19 outbreak and future pandemics.

The Government has committed over £37 billion to support the essential work of NHS Test and Trace and Public Health England in tackling COVID-19. We have already brought this work together under unified leadership and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) will be established formally very shortly.

In addition, The Department of Health and Social Care has made available more than £6 billion to develop, manufacture and procure COVID-19 vaccines and continues to provide free personal protective equipment (PPE) to testing and vaccination centres to ensure frontline workers remain protected.

Future resourcing for the UKHSA will be determined in the next Spending Review.