Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to paragraph 3.9, bullet point 3 of Coronavirus: action plan, published on 3 March 2020, if he will authorise research into the security control of viruses under investigation at the Wuhan State Institute of Virology.

We have no plans to authorise research into the security control of viruses under investigation at the Wuhan State Institute of Virology.

We are concentrating on the stages that we have set out in paragraph 3.9 of the COVID-19 action plan. These stages are: contain, delay, research and mitigate.