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, whether any doses received from that pledge will (a) incur a charge to (i) lower and (ii) middle income countries and (b) be classed as Overseas Development Aid additional to the current target of 0.5 per cent of GNI in the 2021-22 financial year.

The UK is leading the international response to COVID-19. We have made available new public commitments worth up to £1.3 billion of Official Development Assistance (ODA) to counter the health, economic, and humanitarian impacts of COVID-19, and to support the global effort to distribute vaccines equitably.

The cost of donating the UK's surplus vaccine doses to developing countries will be classified as ODA. This will be in addition to the £10 billion already committed in aid in 2021. Final UK ODA spend will be published in the FCDO's Statistics on International Development report in 2022, including COVID-19 related donations.