International Vaccine Programmes: Funding

Lord Young of Norwood Green Excerpts

Tuesday 17th June 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

I think the noble Lord is somewhat overinterpreting what has been said. We have been very clear that we are going to prioritise humanitarian, health and climate initiatives. Because of his work in this field, he will understand that, when you are talking about health, principally, the beneficiaries are, quite rightly, often women and children. We will be making sure that a child, wherever they live, can access what they need. Gavi is a very good way of delivering this. We will be making our decisions, doing the impact assessments and, unlike the previous Government, publishing the conclusions of the impact assessments, because we want to be as transparent as possible.

[Lord Young of Norwood Green (Lab)]

My Lords, are the Government aware that we have a serious vaccine crisis in this country? It started with Covid. There is a lot of disinformation. Measles, mumps, rubella and a number of other vaccines are vital. We are well below the safety thresholds in many parts of the UK. Can the Minister give some indication of what the Government are doing to reverse these trends?

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

I would be straying somewhat beyond my remit to talk about vaccine hesitancy in the UK, but I point out that pathogens do not respect barriers. It is in the interests of health security in this country to make sure that having children vaccinated becomes the norm, wherever those children are growing up.