Jamaica: Hurricane Melissa

Lord Bailey of Paddington Excerpts

Wednesday 29th October 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

I do not want this to sound at all patronising, but the assistance that we can give now is very different from that which we could give 10 or so years ago. Yes, there is the immediate response, which will take the form of ODA, and we have a crisis reserve, which is where it needs to be for this stage in the year, but we have also been able to work on insurance and construction. I was very recently at a hospital in Jamaica whose construction we had been able to support, making it much more able to withstand the impact of a hurricane. It has generators and its own energy supplies, and some of that is renewable, and it is able to carry on functioning even in the most difficult circumstances. So the infra- structure is becoming more robust. We have invested alongside others in parametric insurance so that the payouts are very fast to enable the Government of Jamaica and those of other islands to be able to respond much more quickly than they could previously.

On the noble Lord’s points about OECD and ODA graduation, for small island developing states that is really important. There is a problem with graduation, as we see with Montserrat at the moment; it is something that we are very keenly looking at to make sure that countries are treated fairly, because at the moment the way these things work often disadvantages countries with very small populations.

[Lord Bailey of Paddington (Con)]

My Lords, I am sure that the Minister knows how very well the Jamaican Government prepared for the coming hurricane season, knowing the once in a lifetime scale of the hurricane that has hit. What additional work are His Majesty’s Government doing to help Jamaica and other Caribbean islands prepare for the future? It is preparation, not repair, that helps nations such as Jamaica survive these events. What work are the Government doing with the diaspora, of which I am a member, to help our mother island, as it were, recover from such a devastating hit?

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

That is a really important point. My right honourable friend the Foreign Secretary spoke to Kamina Johnson Smith, the Foreign Minister in Jamaica, on Monday before Melissa hit, to have exactly that conversation. I know, because I have spoken with Ms Johnson Smith myself in Jamaica, the extent to which the Government there are understanding of what they need to do, and the preparation made within the region is dramatically different now because so much more is known. Our capability in predicting these events is enhanced, and the capability within the region is really quite impressive. That does not mean that they can handle this on their own—of course not. We have a responsibility, which we take incredibly seriously, not least because, as the noble Lord says, there are such strong community links and people-to-people links, particularly with Jamaica. We will continue to work alongside the Government there to make sure that they get what they need to get through this initial period. It is fast moving—we are assessing the damage and will do what we need to do now. This is something on which we are likely to have to stay close to the Government of Jamaica working on for some time.