The Bishop of St Albans received the following written answer on 21st June 2021:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to raise the issue of global vaccine equity at the upcoming G7 meeting in Falmouth.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con, Foreign Office): The UK is committed to rapid, equitable access to safe and effective vaccines. We are among the largest donors to the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC), committing £548 million, which through match-funding leveraged $1 billion from other donors in 2020. This support to COVAX has been critical to it supplying COVID-19 vaccines to over 125 countries and economies. The UK’s investment in developing the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine also represents a critical contribution to global vaccination efforts, with 450 million doses having been delivered globally at cost so far.
The UK’s G7 Presidency is also championing equitable access to vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics to help the world fight and build back better from this pandemic. The UK has committed to sharing 100 million vaccine doses by June 2022, with the majority going to OVAX. We welcome the commitments made by our G7 partners to this shared goal, and look forward to discussing how we can work together to progress this agenda further.
The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked Her Majesty’s Government, further to the WHO Director-General’s remarks on 9 April that bi-lateral vaccine donations exacerbated global vaccine inequality, how many vaccines they have donated (1) to individual nations, and (2) to the COVAX programme; and what plans they have to support to the COVAX initiative further.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon: 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 cooperation on vaccines, COVAX remains best-placed in allocating vaccines fairly and effectively.
The UK was one of the earliest and largest donors to COVAX, donating £548 million to the COVAX Advance Market Commitment. Our early funding gave COVAX the purchase power it needed to secure deals with manufacturers to supply internationally-approved vaccines for up to 92 low and middle income countries. So far, COVAX has helped deliver over 81 million doses to 129 countries and territories. The UK is also among the largest donors to the ACT-Accelerator, committing up to £813 million of UK aid to partners for the development and distribution of vaccines, treatments, and tests in developing countries, including £250 million of core funding to the Coalition for Pandemic Preparedness (CEPI) in 2020 to support its work to accelerate the development of, and access to vaccines. 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.
The Church of England in Parliament 
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