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 ensure greater coordination of the UK’s overseas development budget (a) on global health research and development with the Department for (i) Health and Social Care and the (ii) Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and (b) across Government Departments, more widely.

Our officials work closely with colleagues in the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), as well as with UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), Wellcome Trust and other organisations, to ensure the coherence and effectiveness of the UK Government's global health research and development portfolios.

Coordination is facilitated through higher level bodies. Examples include the Strategic Coherence of Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) funded Research (SCOR) Board that includes senior representatives from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, DHSC, BEIS, UKRI and Wellcome; and the Global Health Oversight Group that brings together senior officials from departments across Government to oversee the UK's ODA to health. Similar boards exist in other sectors that the UK Government works in internationally. A Ministerial oversight group, chaired by the Foreign Secretary and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, mirrored by a senior officials' oversight group, oversees UK ODA from Whitehall. At country level, departments work closely together.