Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much her Department spent on programmes tackling tuberculosis in (a) 2015-16, (b) 2016-17 and (c) 2017-18.

DFID invests in the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and malaria as the principal mechanism to combat TB. The UK is currently the second largest investor in the Global Fund, providing £1.2 billion in the 5^th replenishment (2017 – 2019); and in the 4th replenishment period (2012-16) we invested £800 million.

We have some bilateral programmes to combat TB but these are decreasing as our investment in the Global Fund increases. Bilateral spending on TB, which we publish by calendar year, is: £10,017,171 for 2015; £2,626,718 for 2016; and £2,455,101 for 2017.

In addition we fund research on TB, including to develop more effective diagnostics and treatment, programmes to support countries to strengthen their health systems to better address all causes of ill health, including TB, and significant other investments into other health multilaterals such as the WHO, which provides technical leadership on tackling TB and strengthening health systems, and Unitaid which is supporting the introduction of new drugs for drug-resistant for TB, the first in nearly 50 years, and the development of paediatric TB medicines for children in some of the world’s poorest countries.

Data on UK aid expenditure is published each year and can be accessed from the link below

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statistics-on-international-development-2017