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 effect of global equitable access to covid-19 vaccines on the emergence of viral variants of covid-19.

All viruses change constantly through mutation, and many thousands of variants of the virus that causes COVID-19 have been detected across the world. Most have little to no impact on the virus's ability to cause infections and disease, but some can pose higher risks. Variants are more likely to arise in areas of high transmission. In addition to basic public health measures, the World Health Organisation has advised that ensuring equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines will reduce virus circulation. This will ultimately lead to fewer mutations and variants.

The UK is committed to rapid, equitable access to safe and effective vaccines. We are among the largest donors to the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC), committing £548 million, which leveraged $1 billion from other donors in 2020 through match funding. This support to COVAX has been critical to it supplying COVID-19 vaccines to over 120 countries, and economies. We have also committed to share the majority of our supply of any surplus vaccine doses with COVAX.