Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department have taken steps to enable people who participated in the Novavax covid-19 vaccine trials to travel internationally; and what support his Department has provided to the European Medicines Agency for the registration of that vaccine.

The Government continues to make the case that anyone on a COVID-19 vaccine trial should be treated the same in terms of certification as someone who has received a deployed vaccine. Our Chief Medical Officer has written to all of his counterparts in the European Union and European Economic Community on this matter. Discussions are ongoing with other countries, including through groups such as the Group of Seven, the European Commission and the World Health Organisation to shape the approach taken around the world to sharing health status for travel.

The Vaccines Taskforce and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) are working with Novavax to help ensure their COVID-19 vaccine is authorised as quickly as possible. The decision to license a vaccine is made by the MHRA.