Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 21 January 2022 to Question 106747 on Developing Countries: Coronavirus, what discussions took place at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Rwanda on (a) progress being made by Commonwealth countries towards vaccinating their population against covid-19 and (b) the availability of assistance from the UK's international aid budget to assist in that effort.

At the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Kigali, Heads and Foreign Ministers had wide ranging discussions on pandemic recovery, which included vaccine coverage, economic factors, the vulnerability of small states and the need for wider health system strengthening.

During our time as Commonwealth Chair-in-Office, the UK has been at the forefront of the international response to COVID-19, spending over £2.1 billion since 2020 to address its impacts. Our funding has enabled COVAX to deliver over 1.58bn vaccine doses to 146 countries and territories, including 52 Commonwealth countries. The UK has also bilaterally donated over 85m doses of COVID vaccines, including to 18 Commonwealth countries. We are keeping further support under review.