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 effect of the reduction in the Official Development Assistance budget (a) from 0.7 per cent to 0.5 per cent and (b) as a result of the UK’s decreased GDP on Government support for immunisation programmes for children.

The UK Government remains committed to supporting routine immunisation programmes as part of our manifesto commitment to end preventable deaths of mothers, new-borns and children.

The Government has committed £1.65 billion over the next five years to support Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, to immunise 300 million children and save up to 8 million lives.

This commitment is unchanged following the recent reductions to the ODA budget.