Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the UK’s capacity to develop and manufacture vaccines for emerging diseases.

Vaccines are an important tool for preventing and mitigating the impacts of disease and an essential component of our preparedness for a pandemic or emerging infectious disease outbreak. Government investment across the vaccine development and manufacturing pipeline supports our resilience and we regularly review the United Kingdom’s current levels of capacity and capability, most recently as part of developing the Government’s pandemic preparedness strategy which was published on 25 March 2026.

Current capabilities highlighted in the strategy include an advance purchase agreement with Seqirus, which guarantees the UK population access to over 100 million doses of a pandemic influenza vaccine, entirely manufactured in the UK, and the partnership with Moderna, which aims to bring mRNA vaccine production capability to the UK and build resilience in the event of a new health emergency.

The Government’s Pandemic Preparedness Research and Development Framework, published on 8 July 2025, highlights the development and evaluation of vaccines as a core component of the research and development framework. The Department supports vaccine research and development through National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), NIHR research infrastructure, and UK investment in the UK Vaccines Network and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations. In addition, the UK Health Security Agency’s Vaccine Development and Evaluation Centre works directly with industry to support vaccine development pathways and the evaluation of new products.

The UK’s vaccine manufacturing sector is supported by government investment, including through the Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund (LSIMF), which is a capital grants fund of up to £520 million between 2025 and 2030 to support UK health resilience and help ensure a robust response to potential future health emergencies. Applications to LSIMF are assessed based on their contribution to the UK’s emerging infectious disease capability, including vaccine manufacturing.