Dr Julian Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to donate surplus covid-19 vaccines originally ordered for use in the UK to countries in need overseas; what estimate he has made of (a) the quantity of surplus doses which will become available and (b) the timeframe for when they will be available; what estimate he has made of the total monetary value of those surplus doses; and whether that monetary value will be included in calculations of the total of overseas aid given by the UK to poorer countries.  [10132]

[Due for Answer on 9 June]

ANSWER

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for European Neighbourhood and the Americas (Wendy Morton): The UK remains committed to equitable access to safe and effective vaccines and the Prime Minister has called on G7 leaders to vaccinate the world by the end of next year. As the multilateral mechanism set up to support international co-operation on vaccines, COVAX remains best-placed to allocate vaccines fairly and to where they will be most effective. We will continue to discuss this issue with our G7 partners and will issue details of the quantities and timeframe for UK sharing of vaccine doses soon.