Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps she is taking to ensure that covid-19 vaccines donated by the UK which are then destroyed rather than being used are excluded from being counted as Official Development Assistance.

There are ongoing discussions at the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) regarding how donations of vaccine doses should be reported in ODA in 2021. No decision has yet been made.

Avoiding vaccine expiry and wastage is a core UK objective, and determines when and where we share or deploy doses. Vaccines delivered by COVAX are delivered in consultation with recipient countries, and distributed in line with the World Health Organisation's 'equitable allocation framework.' For all bilateral donations, we have sought assurances from recipients that they have the capacity to roll out the quantity of doses offered in line with National Deployment and Vaccination Plans ahead of their expiry dates.