Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she has taken to help ensure global co-operation on increasing public covid-19 vaccine production capacity.

The UK is at the forefront of global efforts to ensure equitable access to potential COVID-19 vaccines.?We need unprecedented global collaboration and resourcing to drive the speed and scale needed. That is why the Prime Minister joined G20 Leaders on 26 March and called on governments to work together to develop a vaccine as quickly as possible and make it available to anyone who needs it.

The UK supports the Action for COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator launched by the World Health Organization on 24 April, which the UK's First Secretary of State participated in. The ACT Accelerator is a global call to action to accelerate the development, production and equitable access to new COVID-19 diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines. On 4 May the Prime Minister joined world leaders at the Coronavirus Global Response Pledging Conference in calling for truly global collaboration in ensuring everyone around the world can access new coronavirus vaccines, treatments and tests when they are developed.

We have committed £250 million of UK aid to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations for the development of a coronavirus vaccine - the largest contribution of any country. This, alongside our £1.65 billion pledge to GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, will support the development, manufacture and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and tests for people in the Global South.