Select committee: Foreign Affairs Committee
Recommendation 3
First Report: Viral Immunity—The FCO’s role in building a coalition against COVID-19
Published 6 Apr 2020
Paragraph 11
Addressed to Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Foreign Affairs Committee Coronavirus: FCDO response All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
Although the Government is focused rightly on resolving the current crisis, it would be a catastrophic error to deprioritise learning lessons from this pandemic and implementing them before the next one. This must be a cross-Government effort, and the FCO should play a key role in its international and diplomatic dimensions. In its response to this report, the FCO should set out: • how data on the virus is being collected and shared with partner countries, and what efforts it has made to encourage and facilitate the sharing of comparable data collected by those countries; • how it supports UK researchers in verifying data arriving from other countries; and • what financial and operational support it is offering to developing countries where infrastructure may be unable to cope with the pandemic, both bilaterally and through multilateral organisations.
From: Foreign Affairs Committee, First Report: Viral Immunity—The FCO’s role in building a coalition against COVID-19 (HC 239), paragraph 11, 6 April 2020
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 16 June 2020 (deadline 6 June 2020).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government says it "fully agrees" on the importance of greater multilateral cooperation to fight COVID-19 and sets out its international action, and it does not endorse a new body such as a 'G20 for Public Health'.
- On disinformation, the government says it "takes the issue of disinformation very seriously" and describes a DCMS-led cross-Whitehall Counter-Disinformation Unit set up to address COVID-19 disinformation and misinformation.
- On lessons learned, it agrees with the Committee on their importance and, as a co-sponsor of the 19 May World Health Assembly Resolution, says it will work with the WHO and other member states to continue to improve the agency's health emergency systems.
- On support to developing countries, it states it has committed "£764 million" of UK aid funding so far, split across three areas, including building resilience in vulnerable countries and finding a vaccine.
- On reforming multilateral organisations, it does not address the 'G20 for Public Health' idea directly. It says the crisis will point to further areas for reform, which will require "serious consideration and concerted action once the pandemic is over".