Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by researchers at the University of Cambridge, Preparing for the next pandemic: reserve laboratory staff are crucial, published on 27 September, which recommends that a system of reservist lab scientists should be set up to provide surge capacity to support the response to future outbreaks of infectious disease.

The UK Health Security Agency is the permanent standing capacity to prepare for, prevent and respond to threats to health. The Centre for Pandemic Preparedness within the UKHSA, will work with the Department and NHS England to ensure the United Kingdom is protected against future health threats.

The UKHSA has specialist staff, including laboratory-based staff in specialities such as epidemiology, genomics, microbiology, toxicology and other areas. A workforce model, including a register of reserves, is under development with other measures to ensure sufficient expertise is available to deploy on an emergency basis.