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 impact of recent reductions in UK aid on the use of donated medicines in developing countries.

The UK government continues to be a major donor to international health organisations and programmes, including Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, and COVAX, which fund essential medicines in developing countries. UK funded health programmes continue to strengthen health systems to deliver medicines to the most vulnerable people in some of the poorest countries in the world. Additionally, in June the Prime Minister pledged that the UK will share 100 million COVID-19 vaccine doses with developing countries within the next year of which 30 million will be delivered by the end of 2021. Throughout our investments, we support the safe handling and use of donated medicines in line with UK legislation and regulatory requirements and the requirements of recipient country governments.