Asked by: Baroness Sugg (Conservative - Life peer)
Question
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to include gender equality as part of the agenda for the G20 meeting they are hosting next year.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The UK's G20 policy agenda is currently under development and further details will be confirmed in due course.
We are committed to putting women and girls at the heart of everything we do. This includes ensuring the multilateral system remains a powerful tool for gender equality to secure strong commitments for progress on women and girls.
Asked by: Baroness Sugg (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether Baroness Harman will continue as the UK's International Special Envoy for Women and Girls given her new domestic role as Prime Minister's Adviser on Women and Girls.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington
I am pleased to say that Baroness Harriet Harman remains the UK Special Envoy for Women and Girls, championing our objectives to protect the rights and safety of women and girls around the world, alongside her new, domestic-focused role as the Prime Minister's Adviser on Women and Girls.
Asked by: Baroness Sugg (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they plan to publish their response to the Marine Protected Areas Stage 3 Consultation that closed on 29 September 2025.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The consultation on the latest round of proposed byelaws to introduce restrictions on bottom trawling in 41 MPAs resulted in a very large number of responses being received. The Marine Management Organisation is now carefully considering those responses, and decisions will be made in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Sugg (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made on banning bottom trawling in Marine Protected Areas.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The consultation on the latest round of proposed byelaws to introduce restrictions on bottom trawling in 41 MPAs resulted in a very large number of responses being received. The Marine Management Organisation is now carefully considering those responses, and decisions will be made in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Sugg (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government when was the last ministerial meeting with the Chief Commissioner of the Independent Commission for Aid Impact.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington
I refer the Noble Baroness to my appearance before the International Development Committee on 20 January, where I addressed these issues at length.
The Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office are working through detailed decisions on how the Official Development Assistance budget will be used from 2026/27 to 2028/29, informed by internal and external consultation and impact assessments. Funding decisions relating to the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) are part of this process. We plan to publish indicative allocations in the coming months.
I met ICAI's Chief Commissioner on 18 September at ICAI office.
Asked by: Baroness Sugg (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they will make a decision about the future of the Independent Commission for Aid Impact.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington
I refer the Noble Baroness to my appearance before the International Development Committee on 20 January, where I addressed these issues at length.
The Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office are working through detailed decisions on how the Official Development Assistance budget will be used from 2026/27 to 2028/29, informed by internal and external consultation and impact assessments. Funding decisions relating to the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) are part of this process. We plan to publish indicative allocations in the coming months.
I met ICAI's Chief Commissioner on 18 September at ICAI office.
Asked by: Baroness Sugg (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what safeguards and accountability measures they will put in place to ensure that gender equality remains a clear objective in every major sector of the Official Development Assistance budget.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is committed to becoming a smaller, more agile organisation, better able to deliver tangible benefits for the British people. Staff reductions are being made strategically, with decisions guided by an organisational prioritisation exercise to ensure we retain the capability to deliver UK strength, security, and prosperity.
As this transformation progresses, we remain fully committed to promoting equality for women and girls as a core objective across all major sectors of the Official Development Assistance budget, and as set out in her speech in the FCDO on 24 November, the Foreign Secretary is personally committed to putting the issue of violence against women and girls at the heart of the UK's foreign policy agenda.
Asked by: Baroness Sugg (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of staff reductions on the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s ability to mainstream gender equality across international development and foreign policy.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is committed to becoming a smaller, more agile organisation, better able to deliver tangible benefits for the British people. Staff reductions are being made strategically, with decisions guided by an organisational prioritisation exercise to ensure we retain the capability to deliver UK strength, security, and prosperity.
As this transformation progresses, we remain fully committed to promoting equality for women and girls as a core objective across all major sectors of the Official Development Assistance budget, and as set out in her speech in the FCDO on 24 November, the Foreign Secretary is personally committed to putting the issue of violence against women and girls at the heart of the UK's foreign policy agenda.
Asked by: Baroness Sugg (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to advance sexual and reproductive health and rights by providing funding to strengthen grassroots organisations.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington
The UK Government strongly values the work of grassroots organisations in improving access to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in their communities and countries, especially in the context of growing international pushback on women and girls' rights. On World AIDS Day in December 2024, the Prime Minister announced the Grassroots and Counter Rollback Programme. This programme will strengthen local and national civil society organisations, movements and their networks. This will support SRHR in their own communities and countries, and build efforts in the front line facing intensified international pushback against SRHR. It will focus on neglected issues, such as safe abortion, and marginalised groups, whose rights and access to services are often denied or curtailed.
Asked by: Baroness Sugg (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking, following reductions to Official Development Assistance, to ensure the continuation of funding to the Women’s Integrated Sexual Health Programme.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington
The UK is proud to defend and promote universal and comprehensive Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR). Official Development Assistance (ODA) is one of multiple levers to achieve this. Over the coming months, we will work through how the ODA budget will be used in future years, informed by internal and external consultation and consideration of equalities impact assessments ahead of making decisions on budgets for individual programmes in the autumn.
The transition to spending 0.3 per cent of Gross National Income on Official Development Assistance requires significant shifts in the shape and scale of the work we do. However, we will continue to work with international and national partners and use targeted funding, technical partnership and diplomatic engagement to provide leadership on SRHR.