Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will prioritise the sending of surplus COVID-19 vaccines to Commonwealth countries following the conclusion of the UK vaccination programme; and whether any such prioritisation will be confined to those countries with a ranking below 90 in the Transparency International Corruption Index.

The Prime Minister announced on 19 February that the UK will share the majority of any surplus COVID-19 vaccine doses with the COVAX international vaccine procurement pool. As the multilateral mechanism for ensuring equitable global access to vaccines, COVAX is best able to distribute vaccines where they are needed most, and will be most effective, and any doses we contribute will be allocated in line with COVAX's agreed protocols and criteria.

All but two members of the Commonwealth are COVAX members, and I am pleased to note that 31 Commonwealth countries, across four regions, will be receiving COVID-19 vaccines as part of the first set of COVAX deliveries, the very first of which was received in Ghana on 24 February.