Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to sustain progress towards global polio eradication, including through the global health contribution of polio surveillance network.

The UK remains committed to polio eradication, and supports the work of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), to which we have provided £1.37 billion since 1995. GPEI have led efforts that have eradicated wild polio from all but 2 countries, with the African region being declared free of wild polio last year. The difficult economic situation has meant that we have had to reduce the aid budget, including for programmes such as GPEI. We will return to spending 0.7% of our Gross National Income on Official Development Assistance when the fiscal situation allows.

The UK is clear on its support to maintain polio surveillance. As demonstrated in our participation at the World Health Assembly and G7 communiques, new pandemic measures should build on existing surveillance systems from polio.