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 effect of the reduction in official development assistance on the logistics, delivery and rollout of a covid-19 vaccine in (a) Afghanistan, (b) India, (c) Nepal, (d) Pakistan and (e) Bangladesh.

The UK is committed to rapid equitable access to safe and effective vaccines, committing £548 million to the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC), which is the international initiative to support global equitable access to vaccines, of which the UK is among the largest donors.

As the Foreign Secretary set out via Written Ministerial Statement (WMS) to Parliament, global health security remains a priority for UK aid. The FCDO will spend £1,305 million on global health, focusing on the UK's position at the forefront of the international response to COVID-19 through our commitments to COVAX, Gavi, and the WHO. One third of bilateral FCDO Official Development Assistance (ODA) will be spent in the Indo-Pacific and South Asia in support of our deeper engagement in that region. We are now working through what this means for individual programmes, in line with the priorities outlined in the WMS.