To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department held discussions with scientific bodies prior to the decision to sell the Vaccine Manufacturing and Innovation Centre.
This answer is the replacement for a previous holding answer.
Answered on
11 January 2022
The Vaccine Manufacturing Innovation Centre (VMIC) UK is a private company, limited by guarantee, and as such the UK Government does not exercise any ownership rights.
VMIC has been granted £206m of Government funding to date to support the delivery of the facility, including grants since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic to increase vaccine manufacturing capacity. Reflecting the public funding VMIC has received, UK Research and Innovation (who have been managing the grant on behalf of the Vaccine Taskforce) will be required to ‘consent’ to any sale of the company or its assets and have confirmed that they will work closely with the Vaccine Taskforce in performing this function.