Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what the cost to the public purse will be of the planned donation of 100 million covid-19 vaccine doses in the next 12 months (a) to COVAX and (b) bilaterally.

The Prime Minister has committed that 80 per cent of our surplus vaccines will go to COVAX, the scheme part-funded by the UK government, to make sure vaccines are available affordably for everyone. The remainder will be shared bilaterally with countries in need. Five million doses will be shared by the end of September, starting in the coming weeks and 30 million will be delivered by the end of 2021. The cost will depend on which vaccines are available for donation and decisions on which vaccines will be shared will be based on the continued reliability of supply chains, regulatory restrictions and advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation. We will set out more details in due course.