Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to recent calls to the international community from the Prime Minister of Nepal, if he will commit to leading on getting 40 million vaccine doses to Nepal in the coming months.

The UK's G7 Presidency in June championed equitable access to vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics and confirmed the UK will share 100 million vaccines over the next year, 30 million of those by the end of 2021. We are currently reviewing which countries will receive donations, though at least 80% of the vaccines shared will go to COVAX. The UK is a leading donor to COVAX, the multilateral mechanism set up to support international co-operation on vaccines, having committed £548 million to the scheme. COVAX has delivered over 1,800,000 doses to Nepal so far with further tranches on the way. COVAX remains best-placed to allocate vaccines to where they will be most effective. As shareholders and contributors to both the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, the UK has also pushed hard for multilateral organisations to provide finance to countries for vaccine procurement, including Nepal. The World Bank has now made at least $75 million available to the Government of Nepal for that purpose; a further $165 million will soon be proposed to the board of the Asian Development Bank, which the UK will also support.