Asked by: Lord Boateng (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the level, focus, and impact of support provided to the African Union and its institutions by (1) the government of China, and (2) by the government of Russia.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
The African Union (AU) maintains external partnerships with many organisations, regional bodies and countries:
(1) China is one of those countries. The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) occurs every three years and China funded the construction of the AU's headquarters in Addis Ababa. The Chinese Foreign Minister visited Addis Ababa in January 2023 and was present at the opening of the new Chinese-built Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters.
(2) Russia has a lesser profile presence at the AU. The Russian Foreign Minister visited Addis Ababa in July 2022 but did not visit the AU headquarters.
The UK enjoys a strong relationship with the AU, collaborating effectively across a range of issues such as peace and security, climate change, global health and trade.
Asked by: Lord Boateng (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government when a Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office minister last (1) visited the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, and (2) addressed the Pan-African Parliament in Pretoria; and on how many occasions in the last three years ministers have made such visits.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
The UK enjoys a strong relationship with the African Union (AU), collaborating effectively across a range of shared priorities such as peace and security, climate change, women and girls, food security, health and trade. The UK maintains regular ministerial engagement with counterparts in the AU and its institutions. The former Minister for Development, Rt Hon. Vicky Ford MP, visited the AU Headquarters in Addis Ababa most recently on 20 October 2022, where she met the AU's Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security (PAPS). We look forward to more high-level engagement with the African Union in 2023.
Asked by: Lord Boateng (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of changes to the tax free limits to lifetime pension pots on the retention of head teachers in England and Wales.
Answered by Baroness Barran
The department considers a wide range of policy matters with the Teachers’ Pension Scheme Advisory Board to ensure that the pension continues to be a key benefit in attracting and retaining teachers and head teachers in England and Wales.
The lifetime allowance for pensions is being maintained by HM Treasury at its current level of £1,073,100 until April 2026. This allows head teachers and other savers to continue to make significant amounts of pension savings tax-free, while ensuring incentives to save are targeted across society.
The government keeps all aspects of the tax system under review, as part of the annual Budget process, and in the context of the wider public finances.
Asked by: Lord Boateng (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they propose to address the issue of climate adaptation for African agriculture at COP27, in order to further the Global Action Agenda on Transforming Agricultural Innovation launched in November 2021.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The UK made climate change adaptation a priority of our COP Presidency. Africa is in the frontline of climate change, facing drought and extreme weather patterns, despite only contributing a mere 3 per cent of global emissions. The Global Action Agenda on Transformation in Agriculture launched at COP26 has informed the development of the Agriculture Breakthrough goal and a set of actions for endorsing countries set out in The Breakthrough Agenda Report 2022. A set of priority actions will be launched on Agriculture and Adaptation day at COP27. The Agriculture Breakthrough will advance climate adaptation and mitigation globally, including for Africa.
Asked by: Lord Boateng (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of acute food insecurity in Africa; and what steps they are taking to address it.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
UN Humanitarian assessments indicate that over 140 million people are critically food insecure due to conflict, climate disasters and the Covid pandemic, made worse by the war in Ukraine.
The UK is a major humanitarian donor and we are pressing for an urgent collective response to current levels of acute food insecurity. This financial year we intend to provide approximately £156 million to address humanitarian requirements across East Africa. FCDO Ministers are also calling on multilateral institutions to do more. We continue to support the G7 Global Alliance on Food Security and the UN Global Crisis Response Group.
Asked by: Lord Boateng (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will address the impact of climate change on farmers in sub-Saharan African through the allocation of resources in their development programmes; and if so, how.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The UK is addressing the impact of climate change on farmers in sub-Saharan Africa through a broad range of programmes. For example, the FCDO-funded African Food Trade and Resilience aims to facilitate food trade between surplus and deficit areas by supporting companies to develop farmer-support models that promote climate-friendly practices.
More broadly, the FCDO is supporting farmers to cope with climate change through our international climate finance, and in delivery of the UK's International Development Strategy commitment to prevent and anticipate shocks and build resilience in long running crises by tackling the underlying drivers of crises, instability, and food insecurity.
Asked by: Lord Boateng (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of state sponsored human rights abuses in the Cameroon after the reported shooting of a four year old girl by a gendarme in the Anglophone South-Western region of that country; and what discussions they have had the governments of (1) Cameroon, and (2) France, regarding this.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
Following the shooting of the four-year old girl in Buea, the British High Commission in Yaoundé issued a statement condemning the act, welcomed an investigation by the Cameroon Ministry of Defence, and raised the incident directly with the Cameroonian Government. The UK works regularly with international partners, including France and the US, to raise the crisis in multilateral fora. At the UN Human Rights Council in March, we called for an end to violence and for impartial investigations to hold the perpetrators of human rights violations and abuses to account. The UK has also funded training to improve human rights reporting and better protect human rights defenders in Cameroon.
Asked by: Lord Boateng (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have received any representations from (1) Ryanair, or (2) any other interested parties, concerning the compatibility of that airline's requirement for South African passport holders to take an Afrikaans language test, with (a) entry requirements, and (b) anti-discrimination legislation.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
The recent language test requirement for passengers travelling with Ryanair is not a UK Government requirement. The FCDO’s Post in South Africa has confirmed this via its social media channels and has been in touch with South Africa’s Department for International Relations and Cooperation. My officials have engaged with Ryanair on this matter and they have since confirmed that the language test is no longer in use.
Asked by: Lord Boateng (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 2 March (HL Deb col 846), when they intend to open a sponsored pathway for Ukrainians not related to persons settled in the UK to obtain entry into the UK as a refugee; what are the sponsorship requirements for any such application; and what qualifications are required to act as a sponsor.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
Details of the plans to open a sponsored pathway for Ukrainians not related to persons settled in the UK were announced in Secretary of State's, Department of Levelling Up, Housing & Communities in his Oral Statement to Parliament of 14 March 2022:
Sponsors must be able to offer accommodation for at least 6 months and will be required to undergo necessary vetting checks.
Asked by: Lord Boateng (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the response by Safe Passage, the Hummingbird Project, and Kent Refugee Action Network to their proposed new plan for immigration; and what provision they intend to make for the specific needs of refugees and asylum seekers for (a) accommodation, (b) education, and (c) employment.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
We note the joint report by the young people of Safe Passage, the Hummingbird Project and Kent Refugee Action Network, ‘Safe routes from the perspective of young refugees – our response to the New Plan for Immigration’, published on 25 June 2021.
As part of the New Plan for Immigration, there was an engagement and consultation process which ran from 24 March 2020 to 6 May 2021. During this time, the Home Office encouraged stakeholders and members of the public to share their views on its proposals via an online questionnaire.
The Home Office’s response to the consultation was published in July 2021 and can be found here:
The New Plan for Immigration will deliver the most comprehensive reform of the asylum system in decades. It includes plans to set up accommodation centres to provide basic accommodation for asylum-seekers who would otherwise be destitute. We will only accommodate people in the centres after an individual assessment shows it’s suitable and safe for them. We also continue to seek opportunities to expand the number of areas participating in our dispersal area accommodation system.
Asylum seekers’ children under 18 will continue to have access to full-time education and continuous support in line with our duty under section 55 of the Borders Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009.
In terms of employment, we will allow asylum seekers to work if their claim has been outstanding for 12 months or more through no fault of their own. Those permitted to work are restricted to jobs on the Shortage Occupation List (SOL).