Asked by: Beccy Cooper (Labour - Worthing West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what funding his Department plans to allocate (a) to international programmes primarily focused on preventing novel pandemics at source and (b) through multilateral and bilateral initiatives where pandemic preparedness is a secondary or cross-cutting objective from 2025 to 2028.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We will publish Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office's final 2025/26 Official Development Assistance (ODA) programme allocations in the Annual Report & Accounts in July. Over the coming months, we will work through detailed decisions on how the ODA budget will be used in future years, informed by internal and external consultation and impact assessments, ahead of publishing indicative multi-year allocations in the autumn. We continue to work across Government and with our international partners to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response.
Asked by: Beccy Cooper (Labour - Worthing West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the 6.9% reduction in the FCDO's resource budget on the ability to respond to global health threats.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Over the coming months, we will work through detailed decisions on how the Official Development Assistance budget will be used in future years, informed by internal and external consultation and impact assessments.
The Minister for Development was delighted to attend the Gavi Global Summit in Brussels on 25 June 2025 and announce that the UK will invest an additional £1.25 billion in support of Gavi's 2026 - 2030 programme. This commitment, alongside contributions from international partners, will help deliver Gavi to partner with countries such as yours to immunise up to 500 million more children, save up to 9 million more lives, and generate over $100 billion in economic benefits.
The UK's commitment to supporting both humanitarian aid and development across the world remains steadfast, despite the reduction to the UK's aid budget. We continue to work across Government and with international partners to deliver on our global health agenda, including how we best mitigate the risks of a range of global health threats. The UK's role in helping secure consensus in May this year on a legally-binding Pandemic Agreement underlines our commitment to tackling these threats.
Asked by: Beccy Cooper (Labour - Worthing West)
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 ensure that global development and health partnerships remain central to foreign policy objectives.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Work on international development, including global health, remains a priority for this Department. The Minister of State for International Development made this clear at the International Development Committee hearing on 12 May 2025, we will sharpen our focus on humanitarian, health and climate and nature. Making progress on our health and development agenda not only supports our broader foreign policy objectives but also contributes to the Government's health and economic growth missions.
At the UK-EU summit on 19 May, we affirmed our shared commitment to increasing our cooperation on health security, including to prevent and better mitigate against future pandemics and health crises. Later this year, the UK will co-host the replenishment of the Global Fund with South Africa.
At the Gavi Global Summit in Brussels on 25 June 2025 the Foreign Secretary announced that the UK will invest an additional £1.25 billion in support of Gavi's 2026 - 2030 programme. This commitment, alongside contributions from international partners, will help deliver Gavi to partner with countries such as yours to immunise up to 500 million more children, save up to 9 million more lives, and generate over $100 billion in economic benefits. The Minister of State for International Development also announced the UK will be investing a further £25 million in Gavi's Matching Fund to grow their work. Meeting investments from the private sector.
Asked by: Beccy Cooper (Labour - Worthing West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will make it his policy to support (a) low and (b) middle income countries issuing compulsory licenses for the HIV prevention tool lenacapavir.
Answered by Anneliese Dodds
Lenacapavir could play a critical role in the global fight against HIV but only when it is available and affordable in countries that need it. We strongly supported Unitaid's decision to invest £17 million to accelerate access to Lenacapavir through market-shaping grants.
As Lord Collins stated in Parliament on 18 November at the HIV APPG roundtable, we welcome Gilead's bilateral voluntary licensing agreements with six generic manufacturers to make and sell generic Lenacapavir in 120 resource-limited countries, and their commitment to provide Lenacapavir at non-profit pricing in sub-Saharan Africa.
In combination with our market-shaping interventions, this will help accelerate access to this potentially groundbreaking tool.
Asked by: Beccy Cooper (Labour - Worthing West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will prioritise global health spending in the Overseas Development Assistance budget in (a) 2024-25 and (b) 2025-26.
Answered by Anneliese Dodds
The UK is a leader on global health and one of the largest providers of Official Development Assistance (ODA) for health, including to organisations like Gavi, helping to vaccinate one billion children, and through the Global Fund, which has cut the global death rate from HIV, malaria and TB by 50 per cent, and as the largest flexible funder of the World Health Organization.
In 2024/25, we are prioritising predictability and stability after years of turbulence under the previous Government. We will publish the FCDO's ODA programme allocations for 2024/25 shortly. We are considering how to allocate our ODA programme budget for 2025/26 to lay the foundations for our ODA spending in future years; the allocations will be published in due course.
Asked by: Beccy Cooper (Labour - Worthing West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what diplomatic steps he is taking to help protect Edmundo Gonzalez, leader of the Venezuelan democratic opposition.
Answered by Catherine West
It is completely unacceptable that the Maduro regime forced Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez into exile and issued a warrant for his arrest. Baroness Chapman of Darlington publicly condemned the arrest warrant on 4 September. The Foreign Secretary has also spoken out against these reprehensible actions. I am grateful that Spain has been able to provide safety and asylum to Edmundo Gonzalez and he is now able to continue to speak out for the democratic will of the Venezuelan people. The UK continues to work with international partners to achieve a peaceful solution in Venezuela. Dialogue remains the only solution.
Asked by: Beccy Cooper (Labour - Worthing West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to help increase the accessibility of covid-19 vaccines in lower-income countries.
Answered by Anneliese Dodds
The UK Government is the second largest donor to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance - committing £1.65 billion from 2021-2025. Gavi's COVID programme is meeting all the demand for COVID vaccines in lower income countries. Gavi also provides delivery support to ensure the vaccines get to the people that need them. This programme will run until the end of 2025. Since the onset of the pandemic Gavi has delivered over 2 billion doses of COVID vaccines.
Asked by: Beccy Cooper (Labour - Worthing West)
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 implications for his policies of attacks against health (a) workers and (b) facilities in Myanmar.
Answered by Catherine West
The UK has repeatedly condemned the Myanmar military's attacks against health workers and health facilities in public statements and at multilateral fora, including the UN Security Council. We are promoting accountability by providing funding to the UN's Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar and to the Myanmar Witness project, which documents human rights abuses, including attacks on health workers and facilities, for use in future prosecution. We have also integrated digital approaches into our healthcare programming, such as providing over 70,000 tele-medicine consultations, to enable conflict-affected communities access to qualified health workers.