Speeches by Darlington.

“First, welcome to your new role, Dr Zubir Ahmed. I am very happy to see that we have a life sciences Minister at the Department of Health and Social Care in that role. We have heard from industry that there has been a credibility gap between what we say—our life sciences strategy—what the Prime Minister said at the con…”

“We heard from industry that there was a credibility problem. I was welcoming you to your new role and wanted to understand how you saw your new role fixing between what we say in our life sciences strategy and what we are able to deliver in terms of everything from clinical trials through to potential negotiations on p…”

“I agree. I have spoken a lot to you both about my worries about where we were going on life sciences and how we needed to up our game in this. It is clear that, as we and the industry recognise, the ideas and the reality are there. Do you think the two of you together can make that case to Treasury to make sure the inv…”

“Right. I wanted to come to you, Tom Keith-Roach. We have met and had chats before. I was surprised to see that you are pausing the £200 million development in Cambridge. I know in the past we have talked about cost in the Cambridge area. Is this a Cambridge issue or is this a UK issue? When you say pause, does that mea…”

“Let me ask my follow-up question to that, because I really appreciate the honesty of that response. You will find a lot of agreement around this table; it is something we have talked about quite a lot here. What you are talking about, in terms of setting an environment of innovation and absorption into our own health s…”

“Can I just ask the obvious follow-up question? If it is really constructive, and it has been difficult over the last decade or two decades, what is happening in terms of the conversations that is going to make it any different or better now? It is very difficult, it has been like that for 20 years, but there are very c…”

“My final question—just because you have raised it as an issue—is around the tariff discussions. President Trump is landing tonight. Are the two of you going to be involved in any discussions with US officials around the tariff arrangements over the next few days during the visit?”

“Before I go on to something else, I just have a quick follow-up question for you, Ben. MSD Animal Health is in Milton Keynes, in my constituency. Are there any jobs at risk there?”

“No, I am not.”

“Yes, I have met the team on several occasions and, in fact, hosted them and helped to facilitate meetings with Ministers for that team. I thought that was in anticipation of not closing that site. That is clearly what the local team were hoping for. I did not realise that the decision was final.”

“Can we maybe hear something from the outcome of this visit that may improve the landscape in terms of tariffs?”

“Milton Keynes has more than 15,000 specialist school places, but there has been a 114% increase in children with EHCPs. Even with the level of specialist provision that the council has been able to provide, it still cannot meet the demand. How should we square that circle?”

“You are getting there.”

“Yes, that is the one I want.”

“What is our global role?”

“It is a great reflection. You and I sat together round a dinner table and talked about it. I agree with you that there are some exciting announcements to come up for the Office for Life Sciences that will hopefully address some of your and my frustrations. I want to come back to the global biosecurity question. Obvious…”

“That is particularly to Victoria and Philippa, but also to Mike. It is a more specific example of Adam’s questions.”

“Yes, a simple and short question. At the Gavi replenishment, the Americans sent a message via Robert Kennedy, their Health Secretary, who is as we know vaccine sceptical, if we were to be nice. He said that the industry was ignoring the science. What kind of global impact, and impact on the UK in terms of funding and r…”

“I will start with a question to Professor Dame Jenny Harries in the same kind of vein. Could you tell the Committee what the key biosecurity-related questions are for the UK and the world, and how that links to some of the global challenges that we see, so that we have a better understanding of the depth and the breadt…”

“Why should the UK public care about research being done on hep B?”