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 that negotiations on an international agreement on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response do not unduly constrain domestic decisions about public health matters in a future pandemic.

The UK is clear that we would not sign up to any legally binding instrument that would compromise the UK's ability to take domestic decisions on national measures concerning public health. Decisions such as these will remain the sole competency of the UK Government. The UK, and other Member States, have flagged this as a priority. The UK is playing an active role in shaping this instrument, to deliver on the UK's global health priorities and protect the health of people in the UK and around the world from future pandemics.