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Investment in Life Sciences

My Rt Hon Friend, Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, has today announced the Government’s plans to invest £350 million in a world class laboratory facility in Harlow, Essex by Public Health England (PHE).

This important investment will help to secure the United Kingdom’s place as world leader in life sciences, as well as ensuring state of the art facilities to keep our country safe from infectious diseases. The Public Health England facility will be established in the London-Cambridge life sciences corridor, allowing researchers from our world leading universities to be better connected to these vital facilities.

This investment will enable the relocation of a number of PHE’s functions currently at Porton Down to the new facility. The facilities at Porton are more than 60 years old and this investment will replace them with much needed modern facilities. However, PHE remains committed to the Porton site, and the publically owned pharmaceutical company Porton Biopharma, well as a regional PHE laboratory, will remain at Porton.

The Government will consider future plans for PHE's other facilities as part of the Spending Review.