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 accelerate the rollout of the 100 million covid-19 vaccine doses the UK has committed to donating to the rest of the world.

Our G7 Presidency championed equitable access to vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics and we will share 100 million doses within the next year, 30 million of those by the end of 2021 with 5 million doses shared by the end of September. Decisions on which vaccines will be shared will be based on the continued reliability of supply chains, regulatory restrictions and advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.

80% of the vaccines shared will go to COVAX, the multilateral mechanism set up to support international co-operation on vaccines, COVAX remains best-placed to allocate vaccines to where they will be most effective. This was part of an agreement with G7 partners to share at least 870 million doses over the next year, primarily through COVAX, which has so far helped deliver over 81m doses to 129 countries and territories.