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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to support (a) vaccine manufacturing and (b) UK life sciences.

The UK is home to one of the strongest, most productive health and life sciences industries globally, and the support of the sector is critical to our response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Government is working closely with the sector, including on the UK’s capacity to manufacture new vaccines at scale, where efforts are being overseen by the newly established Vaccines Taskforce. My Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer has announced a host of measures to help businesses, including in the life sciences sector, to manage increased costs and disrupted cashflow as a result of the outbreak, with £330bn worth of government backed and guaranteed loans.