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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans the Government has made to ensure a frictionless route to market for (a) covid-19 tests produced in the UK and (b) an approved vaccine for covid-19.

There is a clear and unprecedented demand for testing supplies and companies, including UK manufacturers, are ramping up their capacity as quickly as possible. We are working closely with industry to obtain maximum possible supplies for the UK and with the scientific community to explore innovative new options for test kits.

Where new testing solutions are developed, we are keen to ensure we are able to utilise them as soon as possible and will be working with the appropriate industry bodies, the UK diagnostics industry and regulators like the MHRA to ensure the most effective products being adopted meet our criteria for use.

The Government has established a Vaccines Taskforce to coordinate and make the most of all the work going on across government, academia and industry to accelerate the development and manufacture of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Work is proceeding at pace to ensure that the UK has capacity to deliver across different vaccine types whilst they are still under development. We will be carefully considering how we go from a newly manufactured and licenced vaccine, to distributing this to those who need it once it becomes available. We are co-ordinating closely with partners across the health and social care system.