Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what audit has taken place in each of the last five financial years of the extent to which the uses to which the UK contribution to the World Health Organisation budget has been put have met Government objectives; and what those objectives were.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is audited every year by an external auditor; their accounts have been unqualified for the last five years. The United Kingdom, as all member states, has oversight of WHO through the governing body meetings; this oversight function has increased from May 2014, by the UK becoming a member of the Executive Board and the Programme Budget and Administration Committee. The UK has participated fully in the process to agree the priorities of WHO, most recently agreeing the general programme of work for 2014 – 2019 and the programme budget 2014-2015, which have included action on our priority areas such as on antimicrobial resistance, malaria, and reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health.