Asked by: Beccy Cooper (Labour - Worthing West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will make it his policy to support (a) low and (b) middle income countries issuing compulsory licenses for the HIV prevention tool lenacapavir.
Answered by Anneliese Dodds - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Lenacapavir could play a critical role in the global fight against HIV but only when it is available and affordable in countries that need it. We strongly supported Unitaid's decision to invest £17 million to accelerate access to Lenacapavir through market-shaping grants.
As Lord Collins stated in Parliament on 18 November at the HIV APPG roundtable, we welcome Gilead's bilateral voluntary licensing agreements with six generic manufacturers to make and sell generic Lenacapavir in 120 resource-limited countries, and their commitment to provide Lenacapavir at non-profit pricing in sub-Saharan Africa.
In combination with our market-shaping interventions, this will help accelerate access to this potentially groundbreaking tool.
Asked by: Beccy Cooper (Labour - Worthing West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will prioritise global health spending in the Overseas Development Assistance budget in (a) 2024-25 and (b) 2025-26.
Answered by Anneliese Dodds - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK is a leader on global health and one of the largest providers of Official Development Assistance (ODA) for health, including to organisations like Gavi, helping to vaccinate one billion children, and through the Global Fund, which has cut the global death rate from HIV, malaria and TB by 50 per cent, and as the largest flexible funder of the World Health Organization.
In 2024/25, we are prioritising predictability and stability after years of turbulence under the previous Government. We will publish the FCDO's ODA programme allocations for 2024/25 shortly. We are considering how to allocate our ODA programme budget for 2025/26 to lay the foundations for our ODA spending in future years; the allocations will be published in due course.
Asked by: Beccy Cooper (Labour - Worthing West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what diplomatic steps he is taking to help protect Edmundo Gonzalez, leader of the Venezuelan democratic opposition.
Answered by Catherine West - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
It is completely unacceptable that the Maduro regime forced Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez into exile and issued a warrant for his arrest. Baroness Chapman of Darlington publicly condemned the arrest warrant on 4 September. The Foreign Secretary has also spoken out against these reprehensible actions. I am grateful that Spain has been able to provide safety and asylum to Edmundo Gonzalez and he is now able to continue to speak out for the democratic will of the Venezuelan people. The UK continues to work with international partners to achieve a peaceful solution in Venezuela. Dialogue remains the only solution.
Asked by: Beccy Cooper (Labour - Worthing West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to help increase the accessibility of covid-19 vaccines in lower-income countries.
Answered by Anneliese Dodds - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK Government is the second largest donor to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance - committing £1.65 billion from 2021-2025. Gavi's COVID programme is meeting all the demand for COVID vaccines in lower income countries. Gavi also provides delivery support to ensure the vaccines get to the people that need them. This programme will run until the end of 2025. Since the onset of the pandemic Gavi has delivered over 2 billion doses of COVID vaccines.
Asked by: Beccy Cooper (Labour - Worthing West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of attacks against health (a) workers and (b) facilities in Myanmar.
Answered by Catherine West - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK has repeatedly condemned the Myanmar military's attacks against health workers and health facilities in public statements and at multilateral fora, including the UN Security Council. We are promoting accountability by providing funding to the UN's Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar and to the Myanmar Witness project, which documents human rights abuses, including attacks on health workers and facilities, for use in future prosecution. We have also integrated digital approaches into our healthcare programming, such as providing over 70,000 tele-medicine consultations, to enable conflict-affected communities access to qualified health workers.