Philippines: Typhoon Odette

Lord Anderson of Swansea Excerpts

Wednesday 5th January 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Con)]

I am afraid I will have to get back to the noble Baroness with an answer to that question.

[Lord Anderson of Swansea (Lab)]

My Lords, as a Welsh Protestant I have been deeply impressed during my visits to the Philippines by the role of the Roman Catholic Church, which is deeply embedded in the country, highly respected and does a vast amount of social work. To what extent are the Government prepared to use the Church as a conduit for supplies and to listen to it about the priorities for relief?

[Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Con)]

The noble Lord makes a hugely important point. One of the problems in humanitarian circumstances is not just making a commitment to provide support but getting it to where it is needed on the ground, and for that we need to rely on whichever avenues exist and best suit those purposes. The church networks that he just described are one such avenue, and we will continue to use them for the deployment of our humanitarian assistance.