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 has taken to progress the delivery of the Life Sciences Vision.

The Government, NHS and Life Science Sector have already made significant progress in delivering the Life Science Vision. Activity since publication includes the establishment and delivery of the Life Science Scale Up Taskforce, work to improve the NHS’s capacity and capability to utilise new technologies, and innovation work by the Vaccine Taskforce and Antivirals Taskforce to secure access to cutting new technologies to address COVID-19.

Following the conclusion of the 2021 Spending Review on 27th October, the Government has confirmed specific funds will be provided upfront to directly support the delivery of the Life Sciences Vision.

This includes £95m funding to support the uptake of innovative drugs and technologies and address a number of the Healthcare Missions outlined in the Vision, drive new initiatives through Genomics England to deliver life-changing technologies, and £354m to strengthen the UK’s Life Sciences manufacturing base. This builds on significant programmes of investment in Health Research across DHSC and BEIS, and the largest ever increases in the NHS’s operating budget.

The Office for Life Sciences are currently working with partner organisations to develop an implementation plan, which will deliver on the commitments as set out in the Life Sciences Vision. Further details on the implementation plan will be set out in due course.