GovWire

On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the spread of the COVID-19 virus a pandemic. The UK government had at this point already been active in funding research into the disease. In early April 2020, the Vaccine Taskforce (VTF) was set up in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to gather together the collective efforts of government, academia and industry to help find a vaccine against COVID-19, to protect and save the lives of UK citizens.

This review considers the extent to which the VTF achieved its 3 strategic objectives:

• objective 1: secure access to promising vaccine(s) for the UK population and achieve lasting immunity
• objective 2: make provision for international distribution of vaccines
• objective 3: strengthen the UKs onshore capacity and capability in vaccine development, manufacturing and supply chain to provide resilience for this and future pandemics

The review also assesses the factors which contributed to the outcomes of the VTF. It draws out learning that can be applied to future government programmes, both in emergency circumstances, such as those in which the VTF was formed, and to business-as-usual activity.

It should be noted the scope of this review primarily assesses the VTFs success against its first 2 objectives. The review only considers the third objective of the VTF in so far as it applies to the original pandemic response.

From October 2022, the vaccine supply responsibilities of the VTF moved to the UK Health Security Agency, where they were established as a permanent function. Responsibility for the VTF onshoring programme moved to the Office for Life Sciences, a joint unit of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office continues to lead on the UKs ongoing support for global equitable access to vaccination through Gavi, in collaboration with DHSC where relevant.

Who should read this publication

This review has been produced with the following audiences in mind:

• primarily, it seeks to inform government officials and wider policymakers in relation to future government programmes
• it also provides external readers with an explanation of the VTF, its objectives and its work