Yesterday, during the Covid-19 Update to the House of Commons from the Minister for the Vaccine Deployment I asked what steps the Government is taking to protect important vaccine infrastructure across the UK.
You can read the question and the response below:
Sarah Atherton (question):
British-based pharmaceutical companies have been pivotal in the global fight against this pandemic. Plants in Teesside, Livingston and Oxford, and Wockhardt in my constituency, are central to vaccine manufacture. So what conversations has my hon. Friend had with his Home Office counterparts to provide sufficient security to these vital pieces of national vaccine infrastructure?
Nadhim Zahawi, Minister for the Covid-19 Vaccine Deployment (Answer):
I want to reassure my hon. Friend that, through the vaccines taskforce, we have been liaising extensively with the vaccines’ developers and the related organisations to ensure that the highest level of security exists through the whole vaccine deployment chain. That has, of course, included working directly with the manufacturers, and we have a senior responsible officer seconded to the team to make sure that security is at the forefront of everything we do to deliver this programme. We cannot allow a lapse of security to get in the way of the largest vaccination programme in the history of this country.