Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have been raising awareness of cervical cancer in England during Cervical Cancer Awareness Month, and if so, how; and whether they have been collaborating with Unitaid on this and on wider programmes to improve women’s health.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

NHS England runs Help Us Help You campaigns to increase knowledge of cancer symptoms and address barriers to acting on them, to encourage people to come forward as soon as possible to see their general practitioner. The campaigns focus on a range of symptoms, encouraging body awareness to help people spot symptoms across a wide range of cancers at an early point.

Unitaid are a leading funder of innovative tools to find and treat cervical cancer in low and middle income countries, laying the groundwork for national cervical cancer elimination programmes worldwide. The Department highly values its partnership with Unitaid, and has contributed more than half a billion pounds in funding.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have been raising awareness of cervical cancer globally during Cervical Cancer Awareness Month, and if so, how; and whether they have been collaborating with Unitaid on this and on wider programmes to improve women’s health.

Answered by Lord Collins of Highbury - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

Unitaid are a leading funder of innovative tools to find and treat cervical cancer in low- and middle-income countries. We highly value our Unitaid partnership and have contributed more than half a billion pounds in funding.

The UK remains a major donor and champion of comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights to improve women's health. This includes continuing to support the Global Financing Facility (GFF), the Reproductive Health Supplies programme, UNFPA, and the Women's Integrated Sexual Health (WISH) and WISH Dividend programmes. The UK is one of the largest donors to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance who have immunised 16 million girls and averted 387,000 cervical cancer deaths over the last decade through HPV vaccination programmes.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Collins of Highbury on 29 January (HL4113), which organisations received female genital mutilation grants in the years listed, together with grant sizes.

Answered by Lord Collins of Highbury - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

The UK supports local organisations through our Africa-Led movement to End Female Genital Mutilation: Phase II programme. The full list of organisations who received Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) grants during this period is available on: https://thegirlgeneration.org/eeey-grantees/. The grant mechanism was fully operational in 2024, granting to 53 organisations, with a focus on small grassroots organisations. The grants ranged from £400 to £100,000.

Evaluation assessments are taking place in March 2025 to understand the full impact of the grants. Early results show that from April 2024 to December 2024, grantee partners reached over 64,159 people through locally-led, community-based end-FGM initiatives. These included meetings with religious and community leaders, training, and support to girl champions, and school-based initiatives. Small grantee partners have made inroads into harder to reach communities. The programme has supported nine grantee partner representatives and 12 champions to participate in national, regional or global advocacy spaces. 46 grantees have also reported stronger organisational capacity, structures and systems.

In addition, the UK is funding local organisations through mechanisms such as the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women and the Equality Fund. Some of these grantees are prioritising FGM, for example, the UNTF supported International Solidarity Foundation in Somalia (2020-2023), which has increased the proportion of religious leaders who believed that all types of FGM are harmful from 52 per cent to 96 per cent.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Collins of Highbury on 29 January (HL4113), what were the achievements and outcomes of the female genital mutilation grants provided.

Answered by Lord Collins of Highbury - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

The UK supports local organisations through our Africa-Led movement to End Female Genital Mutilation: Phase II programme. The full list of organisations who received Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) grants during this period is available on: https://thegirlgeneration.org/eeey-grantees/. The grant mechanism was fully operational in 2024, granting to 53 organisations, with a focus on small grassroots organisations. The grants ranged from £400 to £100,000.

Evaluation assessments are taking place in March 2025 to understand the full impact of the grants. Early results show that from April 2024 to December 2024, grantee partners reached over 64,159 people through locally-led, community-based end-FGM initiatives. These included meetings with religious and community leaders, training, and support to girl champions, and school-based initiatives. Small grantee partners have made inroads into harder to reach communities. The programme has supported nine grantee partner representatives and 12 champions to participate in national, regional or global advocacy spaces. 46 grantees have also reported stronger organisational capacity, structures and systems.

In addition, the UK is funding local organisations through mechanisms such as the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women and the Equality Fund. Some of these grantees are prioritising FGM, for example, the UNTF supported International Solidarity Foundation in Somalia (2020-2023), which has increased the proportion of religious leaders who believed that all types of FGM are harmful from 52 per cent to 96 per cent.

Found: Chair); Lord Borwick; Lord Drayson; Lord Lucas; Baroness Neuberger; Baroness Neville-Jones; Baroness Northover

Found: Chair); Lord Borwick; Lord Drayson; Lord Lucas; Baroness Neuberger; Baroness Neville-Jones; Baroness Northover

Found: March 2025 The Palestine Statehood (Recognition) Bill is a private member’s bill introduced by Baroness Northover

Found: international order, and their impact on global cohesion, stability and security Lead Member: Baroness Northover

Found: March 2025 The Palestine Statehood (Recognition) Bill is a private member’s bill introduced by Baroness Northover

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