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 Government's progress towards the Prime Minister’s G7 commitment in February 2021 to collaborate globally on cutting the development time for new vaccines by two-thirds within 100 days.

The rapid development of vaccines for COVID-19 has demonstrated the power of science, collaboration, and innovation across the public and private sectors. On 20 April, the UK Government launched a new Pandemic Preparedness Partnership (PPP), chaired by the Government's Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance, which will advise the UK G7 Presidency on how to meet the Prime Minister's ambition to slash the time for developing and deploying high quality vaccines from 300 to 100 days. The PPP is bringing together industry, international organisations, and leading experts, and met for the first time on 20 and 21 April for a two-day virtual Pandemic Preparedness Partnership Conference. The Partnership will report to leaders at June's G7 Summit in Cornwall, with a roadmap outlining the steps the G7 could take to protect people against future pandemics, including on this ambitious target for vaccine development.

This is backed by additional funding from the UK Government to support CEPI's work on global vaccine supply. The £16 million investment will fund global vaccine manufacturing capacity, and critical research and development to rapidly respond to the threat of new strains, supporting the development of new variant-specific vaccines. CEPI's work to coordinate research, development, and manufacturing of vaccines will aid efforts to have millions of vaccines available for emergency use within 100 days of a variant of concern being identified.