Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress they have made in the development of a vaccine for COVID-19 and the UK capability to manufacture it.

The development of a COVID-19 vaccine is at the early stages but progressing rapidly. The Government is backing two promising vaccine candidates at the University of Oxford and Imperial College, London. We are making over £45 million available to fund these teams, on top of the £250 million we have pledged to the international effort to find a vaccine – the largest international contribution of any country.

The Vaccines Taskforce is working with the BioIndustry Association Taskforce to review existing domestic capability to manufacture vaccines, in response to COVID-19. The Taskforce is also reviewing options for increasing this capacity. This includes a review of how the Government can support the acceleration and expand the capacity of the Vaccines Manufacturing and Innovation Centre, so that it becomes operational earlier than planned and is able to manufacture population level doses.