Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference the UK’s response to the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone in 2014, how many (a) NHS and (b) armed forces personnel took part in tackling the outbreak; and what (i) equipment and (ii) funding did the UK Government provide to tackle that outbreak.

The UK Government mounted a comprehensive response to the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone, which involved ten departments and four arms' length bodies. More than 1,500 British military personnel, 150 NHS volunteers, 425 Public Health England staff and 250 DFID surge staff worked alongside staff at our High Commission in Freetown and in the UK.

The UK Government also provided 1,500 isolation and treatment beds at six Ebola treatment centres and 70 community care centres across the country. Support also included diagnostic laboratories, safe and dignified burials, assistance for households under quarantine, infection prevention and control, social mobilisation and community engagement. The Government committed more than £400 million to ending the Ebola outbreak throughout the crisis period. Sierra Leone was finally declared Ebola free on 17 March 2016.