Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the (a) prevalence of and (b) risk posed by the covid-19 variant XBB.1.16.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) raised XBB.1.16 as a signal in monitoring through horizon scanning in early March 2023, as reported in Variant Technical Briefing 51, available at the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1141754/variant-technical-briefing-51-10-march-2023.pdf.

This signal is currently under review and a risk assessment will be undertaken following evaluation of the latest data by the Variant Technical Group. This assessment and supporting data, including information such as lineage prevalence, will be published in or alongside the next UKHSA variant technical briefing.