Keeping UK sovereignty in pandemic negotiations

As a member state of the World Health Organisation, we are actively negotiating an agreement with our international partners to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness and response plans.

Many constituents have contacted me concerned that we may lose sovereignty over our UK health policy as part of these negotiations. I have taken this up with the Minister for Development and Africa — and he has assured me that we will not be forced to sign up to anything that compromises our sovereignty in making domestic decisions on our public health. Furthermore, we will have powers to opt out of regulations if we judge them not to be in our interests.

You can read the full ministerial response below.