Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what estimate he has made of the number of health workers in developing countries whose training to respond to covid-19 was funded from the UK aid budget.

UK Aid has long supported our partner countries to increase the availability of skilled, trained and supported health workers. These health workers are essential to the COVID-19 response and ensuring that essential health services continue to be accessible. UK aid funded organisations and programmes have flexed to enable health worker training and other activities required to respond to COVID-19. These include regional and country programmes working on health systems, reproductive health, neglected tropical diseases and water, sanitation and hygiene and our funding to multilateral partners including Global Polio Eradication Initiative, Gavi, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the World Bank.