Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment she has made of the current human rights situation in Rwanda.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Rwanda is a fundamentally safe and secure country with respect for the rule of law. The World Justice Projects Rule of Law index ranks Rwanda top in African and amongst low income countries for order and security. Rwanda has a strong record on economic and social rights, promotion of gender equality, and protecting the rights of migrants. We continue to have concerns about restrictions to political rights, media freedoms, and civic space. We raise these with the Government of Rwanda through the British High Commission in Kigali and at Ministerial level, most recently in January 2022. We firmly believe that civil society and opposition parties must be able to operate freely, holding the Government to account and contributing to the debate on how Rwanda should be governed.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
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 ensure the UK meets its £1billion fair share towards the costs of purchasing (a) vaccines, (b) tests, (c) treatment and (d) PPE in low and middle income counties required by ACT-A.
Answered by Amanda Milling
The UK has consistently championed global access to COVID-19 medical products to help end the pandemic as quickly as possible and has committed up to £1.4 billion to help end the pandemic and address its impacts. This includes up to £813 million of new UK Aid to ACT-Accelerator partners and up to £105 million of additional support announced in December 2021 to help vulnerable countries respond to the Omicron variant. Our 100 million dose-donation target is also part of one billion doses G7 leaders committed to share and finance during the UK's G7 Presidency.
The UK is working with international partners to develop more long-term, sustainable approaches to financing to help the world live with COVID-19 and protect against future variants.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps is the UK taking to support measures to scale up manufacturing capacity of vaccines in low and middle income countries.
Answered by Amanda Milling
Successful vaccine manufacturing needs commercially viable businesses operating within a well-developed ecosystem of skilled workers, access to innovative technology, effective regulation and functioning markets. The UK is working with international and regional partners, including the African Union, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, CEPI (the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations), international development banks and the private sector to catalyse strategic investments for vaccine manufacturing in low and middle income countries. This includes work to forecast future vaccine markets and procurement options. The UK actively supports the new "Partnership for African Vaccine Manufacturing" (PAVM) initiative to implement a roadmap for African vaccine manufacturing. We have also provided technical support to develop business cases for vaccine production in South Africa, Senegal and Morocco.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many vaccines has the UK donated to low and middle income countries to date.
Answered by Amanda Milling
The UK champions vaccine access for all countries through our support for COVAX. The UK was one of the earliest and largest donors to COVAX, contributing £548 million to the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC). Our early funding gave the COVAX AMC the purchase power to secure deals with manufacturers to supply internationally approved vaccines for up to 92 low and middle-income countries. So far, COVAX has helped deliver over 1.16 billion doses to 145 participants.
As of 31 March 2022, the UK has delivered over 51.6 million COVID-19 vaccine doses either to COVAX for allocation and distribution in line with their fair allocation model or directly to recipient countries on a bilateral basis. An additional 16.7 million doses have been committed to COVAX, to be delivered in the near future direct from the manufacturers. Future decisions on vaccine donations continue to depend on supply chain reliability, Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advice and the ability of countries to absorb and deploy vaccines.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps are being taken to enable the UK to deliver its commitment to share 70m vaccine does by June 2022.
Answered by Amanda Milling
The UK champions vaccine access for all countries through our support for COVAX. The UK was one of the earliest and largest donors to COVAX, contributing £548 million to the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC). Our early funding gave the COVAX AMC the purchase power to secure deals with manufacturers to supply internationally approved vaccines for up to 92 low and middle-income countries. So far, COVAX has helped deliver over 1.16 billion doses to 145 participants.
As of 31 March 2022, the UK has delivered over 51.6 million COVID-19 vaccine doses either to COVAX for allocation and distribution in line with their fair allocation model or directly to recipient countries on a bilateral basis. An additional 16.7 million doses have been committed to COVAX, to be delivered in the near future direct from the manufacturers. Future decisions on vaccine donations continue to depend on supply chain reliability, Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advice and the ability of countries to absorb and deploy vaccines.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what (a) number and (b) percentage of UK donated surplus vaccines that have been unusable to short expiration dates.
Answered by Amanda Milling
Decisions on donations are driven by the availability of vaccines from domestic supply. Avoiding expiry and wastage of vaccines is a core objective determining when and where we share or deploy doses. For doses that we donate to COVAX, the UK donates doses before production has finished. This means the doses are delivered straight from the production line, arriving at COVAX with the same shelf life as they would have if they were being delivered to the UK for domestic use. Vaccines delivered by COVAX are delivered in consultation with countries and distributed in line with the World Health Organisation's 'equitable allocation framework'. Over 90% of doses in Q4 2021 were delivered to COVAX with over 3 month's shelf life.
For all bilateral donations we have sought assurances that recipients have the capacity to roll-out the quantity of doses in line with the national vaccination programmes ahead of their expiry date. Of the doses donated bilaterally by the end of December, 85,530 (1.6 per cent) were destroyed having reached their expiry date. We continue to monitor the distribution of donated vaccines.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the forthcoming Hungarian parliamentary elections on 3 April 2022, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of Hungarian civil society organisations' request to the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Right for the deployment of a full-scale election observation mission.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
The UK is committed to building a Network of Liberty that will put us at the heart of economic, diplomatic and security partnerships. Promoting democratic values is a key part of this, and election observation allows us to support democracies and strengthen democratic electoral processes around the globe, including in the OSCE region.
We are considering our approach for the Hungarian General Election. Diplomatic observers from our British Embassy in Budapest observed the Hungarian elections in 2018 and 2014, and our Embassy will continue to work energetically with civil society groups in Hungary ahead of the elections this year. We are clear that independent election monitoring is vital for credible and inclusive elections.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, in the context of Spain’s change in vaccination status requirements for incoming travellers of 1 December 2021, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that those aged 12 to 15 years, who are not yet eligible for full vaccination in the UK, are not discriminated against when trying to travel with family members to Spain.
Answered by Wendy Morton - Shadow Minister (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Spanish government requires that, subject to a few exemptions, everyone aged 12 years and over must be fully vaccinated (with two doses) to be able to visit Spain. In the UK, 12 to 17 year olds are now routinely offered a second dose. Those under 12 years old do not need to demonstrate their vaccination status. Spanish border measures are the prerogative of the Spanish government.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps she is taking to support diplomatic efforts to end the conflict in Ethiopia.
Answered by Vicky Ford
We are extremely concerned by the ongoing conflict in Ethiopia. We continue to engage with all parties to the conflict and have regular discussions with them. We are fully supportive of the efforts of the African Union (AU) High Representative for the Horn of African Region, Olusegun Obasanjo, to find a path to meaningful negotiations. I spoke with him on 4 November to discuss the situation and make clear our strong support, and also spoke with AU Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security, Bankole, on 8 November. We also supported efforts by US Secretary of State Blinken to resolve the conflict in Ethiopia on his visit to Kenya on 17 November and his call for an unconditional ceasefire in Ethiopia.
I also spoke with State Minister Redwan on 18 November, stressing the need for all parties to the conflict to engage in meaningful talks, lift the blockade on aid, and urged him to end the mobilisation of civilians and ethnically targeted arrests. I have continued to emphasise the need for a ceasefire and a humanitarian corridor through recent calls with my international counterparts, including those from Kenya, Ethiopia, the UN A3, and the African Union.
The Foreign Secretary spoke to Ethiopian Deputy Prime Minister Demeke Mekonnen on 5 November, where she also made clear there is no military solution and that negotiations are needed to avoid bloodshed and deliver lasting peace. We have made these points repeatedly to the Ethiopian Government and the Tigrayan authorities.