Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his Department's policies of the increasing percentage of funding for the World Health Organization coming from (a) specified and (b) non-State donor funding.

The Department remains committed to ensuring investments in World Health Organization (WHO) and other multilateral health initiatives deliver strong value for money. Flexible funding supports WHO to direct resources to greatest need and Member States-agreed priorities, improving efficiency and independence whereas specified, or earmarked, funding constrains effectiveness and fragments delivery. The United Kingdom remains one of WHO’s most significant donors and the top provider of flexible funding.

WHO gets the largest proportion of its funding from Member States. WHO’s reporting shows that the share of flexible funding has increased in recent years. The Department’s contribution to WHO consists of the annual mandatory membership fee, which is fully flexible and based on gross national income. WHO funding is available to view publicly on their programme budget portal, with further information available at the following two links:

https://www.who.int/about/accountability/budget/programme-budget-digital-platform-2026-2027

https://open.who.int/2024-25/home

WHO priorities are agreed by all Member States, including the UK through the negotiation of a general programme of work and programme budgets. Then donors, including Member States and others, fund those agreed priorities. WHO’s General Programme of Work 2025 to 2028 was agreed by Member States at the World Health Assembly in 2024.

WHO engagement with the private sector is guided by WHO’s Framework for Engagement with Non-state Actors which was negotiated and agreed by WHO Member States, including the UK, in 2016. The framework seeks to ensure WHO’s engagement with non-state actors, including the private sector, are managed transparently and supports implementation of the organisation’s policies and recommendations as decided by Member States through the governing bodies. It is publicly available to view on WHO’s website, or at the following link:

https://apps.who.int/gb/bd/PDF/Framework_Engagement_non-State_Actors.pdf