Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to support research into intra-nasal covid-19 vaccines.

The Department of Health and Social Care commissions research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) which, with UK Research and Innovation, has co-funded an Imperial College London study worth £580,000 looking specifically at the safety and effectiveness of two COVID-19 vaccines administered via the respiratory tract.

The study is ongoing but in later stages and results will be made public in due course and following peer review.

The NIHR is also providing infrastructure support to an Oxford University study looking at safety and effectiveness of intranasal administration of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.