Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what support the CDC Group has provided to the ventilator manufacturer Skanray Techologies; and how that investment is supporting public health systems in India respond to the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by James Duddridge
CDC is an investor in Skanray Technologies Private Limited through the investment fund Ascent India Fund III managed by Ascent Capital Advisors Private Limited. The investment was made by the fund manager in 2013 with the purpose of expanding access to medical equipment in India and across South Asia. CDC continues to work closely with the company which is exploring options to scale-up its production capacity of ventilators in support of the public health response to Covid-19 in India.
Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how the Credit Facility for Access to Medicines is contributing to efforts to tackle covid-19 by making treatments and vaccines affordable.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The UK is at the forefront of efforts to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. At the G20 last month, the Prime Minister called on all governments to work together to develop a vaccine as quickly as possible and make it globally available.
MedAccess, initially called the Credit Facility for Access to Medicines, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of CDC, the UK’s Development Finance Institution, which in turn is owned and funded by DFID. MedAccess provides ‘volume guarantees’ to manufacturers to stimulate production and increase the availability and affordability of medical supplies in developing country markets across Africa and Asia. It has a track record of success with viral testing kits to combat HIV and insecticide treated bednets to combat malaria. MedAccess is in discussions with UN agencies and manufacturers to establish whether it can provide financial guarantees to increase production and enable more rapid procurement of much needed medical supplies at affordable prices to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic in low- and middle-income countries.
Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of Palestinians' access to healthcare throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territories during the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by James Cleverly - Home Secretary
The UK has pledged £744 million to support the global humanitarian response to COVID-19, including in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs). We have delivered additional vital support in the OPTs by providing £840,000 to World Health Organisation and UNICEF to purchase and co-ordinate the delivery of medical equipment, treat critical care patients, train frontline public health personnel and scale up laboratory testing capacity.
The UN assesses that although the current number of detected cases remains relatively low, the capacity of the Palestinian health system to cope with an expected increase in COVID-19 cases is poor. The situation is particularly severe in Gaza, where the health system has shortages in specialised staff, drugs and equipment. We continue to monitor the situation and are working closely with the UN and the international community to ensure a co-ordinated response.
Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment she has made of the effect on the healthcare system in Gaza of the response to the spread of covid-19 in that region.
Answered by James Cleverly - Home Secretary
There are currently two known cases of COVID-19 in Gaza. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has delivered essential equipment such as lab testing kits and personal protective equipment and has used DFID-funded Trauma Stabilisation Tents to quarantine suspected COVID-19 patients at the Rafah border crossing. UN agencies are supporting further measures such as the establishment of a field hospital and the creation of a medical checkpoint at the Erez border crossing.
A widespread outbreak of the virus could overwhelm Gaza’s already overburdened health system - especially given the lack of reliable access to clean water and energy in the strip. We continue to monitor the situation and are working closely with the UN and the international community to ensure agencies are ready to respond to an outbreak.
Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to help strengthen the capacity of primary health care systems in low-income countries to respond to the spread of covid-19.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The Department for International Development (DFID) recognises strong and resilient national health systems are vital to global health security and helping to protect the world from infectious diseases, including COVID-19.
Through our multilateral partnerships, and our regional and national programmes, we support low-income countries to make their health systems, including primary healthcare, stronger and more resilient, and able to prevent, detect and respond to health threats, such as COVID-19.
UK aid has a longstanding record of global support to countries to prepare for large disease outbreaks. DFID provides continued and additional support to the World Health Organization (WHO) and other UN agencies, using their leadership role, through providing technical assistance, setting norms and standards and tracking progress to help countries address key Health System Strengthening bottlenecks.
The Department of Health and Social Care’s £21 million International Health Regulations (IHR) Strengthening Project builds capacity in six countries across Africa and Asia to enable them to observe the IHRs and better enable them to prevent, detect and respond to infectious disease threats.
In addition to the UK’s significant annual funding to the WHO of around £120 million, the UK has committed an additional £10 million to the WHO’s Emergency Flash Appeal through to April and additional funding for other international partners who are helping developing countries develop and deliver their own response to the virus. We are pressing WHO and the UN to develop a follow-up consolidated appeal to address the COVID-19 health and priority secondary impacts developing countries.
Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent assessment he has made of the performance of for-profit organisations that deliver education in Uganda.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
DFID does not currently fund for-profit organisations in Uganda to deliver education services. As a result, no recent assessment has been made of their performance.
Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what proportion of his Department's funding for education programmes in Uganda is allocated to for-profit organisations that deliver (a) core education services in schools and (b) ancillary services.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
DFID does not currently fund for-profit organisations in Uganda to deliver education services. As a result, no recent assessment has been made of their performance.
Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)
Question to the Department for International Development:
What progress his Department has made on achieving sustainable development goal 4 on education for children.
Answered by Rory Stewart
We are one of the largest bilateral donors to education globally
Between 2015 and 2019 we supported 14.3 million children to gain a decent education of which at least 5.8m were girls.
DFID’s focus is on ensuring that children have access to a quality education.
My ambition is that DFID increases the number of its education specialists in the field to support the major shift required in education systems and teaching to deliver improved learning for children.
Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, which contracts awarded by her Department are operated by Capita.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The Department for International Development does not have any current centrally let contracts with Capita but does have some low value spend with Capita for FY 18/19.