Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support Commonwealth countries with their covid-19 vaccine rollout.

The UK is committed to rapid, equitable access to safe and effective vaccines, treatments, and tests globally. The UK has committed £548 million to the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC) to support access to COVID-19 vaccines for up to 92 developing countries, approximately one third of which are in the Commonwealth. I am pleased to note that 31 Commonwealth countries across four regions will be receiving COVID-19 vaccines as part of the first set of COVAX AMC deliveries, of which 29 have already received their first batches. The UK is encouraging all countries to continue working with COVAX and partners to roll out vaccines, and prepare for future deliveries, which have reached over 127 countries overall so far.

On 2 June, the UK Government launched the G7 Global Vaccine Confidence Campaign, which aims to share best practice, establish partnerships, and build a platform for increasing vaccine confidence internationally. Any Commonwealth country will be able to access the best practice material shared on this platform to increase vaccine confidence.