Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what representations he has made to his Israeli counterpart on ensuring access to covid-19 vaccines in the Palestinian Occupied Territories.

The British Embassy Tel Aviv and the British Consulate-General Jerusalem are in regular contact with the parties and will continue to raise the issue of timely access to vaccines. The UK is committed to global equitable access to effective vaccines as demonstrated by our £548 million contribution to the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC) - the international initiative to support global equitable access to vaccines. We are pleased that the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) were among the first to benefit from the COVAX scheme with delivery of over 61,000 doses that arrived on 17 March. A second shipment of 72,000 doses from COVAX arrived in the OPTs on 19 April with more due later in May.