Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the effect of low vaccination rates in the global south on preventing the (a) spread and (b) mutation of covid19.

Evidence suggests that COVID-19 vaccines can substantially reduce transmission. By supporting countries in accessing these vaccines, we help reduce spread of the virus, and the risk of mutations that could reduce the efficacy of existing vaccines.

The UK is committed to equitable, global access, and is working with international partners to increase global supply, including to low-income countries. This includes £548 million in support of COVAX's Advance Market Commitment, which aims to supply up to 1.8 billion doses to up to 92 low and middle income countries by early 2022. The UK has also committed to sharing 100 million doses by mid-2022. Over 10 million of these doses have been donated so far.

The UK also continues to track emerging variants through ongoing global genomic surveillance, and bilateral conversations with science and policy counterparts in countries where other variants have been detected. In April 2021, we set up the New Variant Assessment Platform (NVAP) to offer UK genomics expertise to countries to detect new variants quickly.