Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the Joint COVAX Statement on Supply Forecast for 2021 and early 2022, published on 8 September 2021, what assessment he has made of implications for his policies of the forecast given in reaching reach the two billion doses target by the end of 2021 on (a) the number of preventable deaths in relation to the covid-19 virus, (b) the likelihood of more dangerous variants of the covid virus emerging and (c) the global economy.

The UK recognises the significant global health and economic impacts caused by the pandemic, and therefore remains committed to supporting rapid, equitable access to safe and effective vaccines through multilateral cooperation to accelerate the end of this acute phase. The UK has played a leading role in developing the COVAX Facility to support this effort, providing £548 million, which has been key to enabling COVAX in so far delivering over 250 million COVID-19 vaccines to 141 countries and territories.

We recognise the need to further increase global vaccine supply, and are committed to working with industry and international organisations on strategies to facilitate expanded manufacturing of affordable COVID-19 vaccines at scale. This includes sharing vaccine doses, with the UK announcing at the G7 Leaders' that it would donate 100 million vaccines overseas in the next year. 80% of these will go to COVAX to enable it to further support countries in need.