Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the G7 pledge of 13 June 2021 on covid-19 vaccines for COVAX and low and middle income countries, what estimate he has been made of the total cost of the 100 million doses pledged.

Our G7 Presidency has championed equitable access to vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics. We will share 100 million vaccine doses within the next year, 30 million of which will be shared by the end of 2021, and we are already sharing the first 5 million doses in the coming weeks. The majority of these will go to COVAX, the multilateral mechanism set up to support international cooperation on vaccines. COVAX remains best-placed for allocating vaccines where they will be most effective, and we have already begun discussions to ensure the first 5 million doses are shared by the end of September.

Going forward, decisions on vaccine sharing will be based on the continued reliability of supply chains, regulatory restrictions, and advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.