Overseas Aid
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Baroness Rawlings
To ask Her Majesty’s Government by how much United Kingdom overseas aid will be increased in 2014-15 as a result of the growth in gross domestic product and the 0.7% target for overseas aid.
Baroness Northover (LD)
My Lords, at the spending reviews in October 2010 and June 2013, the UK Government provided sufficient funding to deliver 0.7% of gross national income as official development assistance—ODA—in 2013, 2014 and 2015. The Government will continue to keep GNI movements under review to ensure that sufficient resources are available to deliver the 0.7% target.
Baroness Rawlings (Con)
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness for her Answer and commend the Secretary of State and her predecessor, my right honourable friend Mr Andrew Mitchell, on putting economic development as a DfID core priority. How much more money will we give this year through the DfID budget, given the current rate of GDP growth? Can the Minister tell your Lordships the actual sum that we give over and above the DfID 0.7% once we have included the registered official development aid—that is, money—from other government departments, such as the MoD’s expenditure on training the Afghan police?
Baroness Northover
ODA is grouped together. As my noble friend recognises, it is not all spent through DfID, although the vast majority of it is. A number of other government departments contribute to deliver some of this—for example, DECC contributes on climate change—although, as I said, most goes through DfID. In the 2013 Budget, the Treasury projected that £11.6 billion would need to be spent to achieve the target of 0.7%. At the Autumn Statement 2013, that figure rose to £11.9 billion—an increase of about £300 million.
Lord Harrison (Lab)
My Lords, will the noble Baroness please ensure that the Government continue rightly to resist the calls to divert overseas aid money to tackle the floods? Will she also take the opportunity to clarify from where the money to help flood victims in the south will come, given the confusion wrought by the recent words of the Prime Minister?
Baroness Northover
I thought that the Prime Minister was extremely clear in his support. I can also point out that we have spent £3.1 billion on flood management and protection. However, I think that the noble Lord is right and I welcome the cross-party support. This is a false choice. I received an e-mail this morning from Justin Forsyth of Save the Children. He said:
“To raid this money that literally saves millions of lives would be immoral”.
Surely he is right.
Lord Howell of Guildford (Con)
My Lords, is it possible to press the authorities which decide the ODA definitions to provide a wider definition that would allow, for instance, the expenditure by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in support of the BBC World Service—or however it is to be supported in the future—to be included in the overall figure? Can these definitions be changed to extend in that direction?
Baroness Northover
The ODA definition, as the noble Lord probably knows, is relatively wide. To seek to change that requires international agreement, and there are risks to that. That said, we fully recognise the contribution that the BBC World Service makes.
Lord Barnett (Lab)
My Lords, now that the Prime Minister has made crystal clear that money for flood victims is not a problem, can the noble Baroness confirm that her department is not considering transferring any money at all from her department’s funds to help in this instance?
Baroness Northover
Maybe I might answer by saying what we have done in Pakistan in terms of floods. The UK committed £134 million overall in aid for the 2010-11 Pakistan floods. The floods left 20 million people in need of serious assistance, including 2,000 dead; destroyed 1.7 million homes; and affected an area four times the size of Britain.
The Lord Bishop of Worcester
My Lords, the Minister has already referred to Pakistan. I was going to draw her attention to the Bangladeshi floods of 1998, which resulted in the loss of 30 million homes and cost the economy of that country 4.8% of its GDP. Does the Minister agree that the spending of money generally on countries which are affected terribly by climate change is both in our national interest and a moral responsibility?
Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)
When do the Government plan to fulfil their promise to legislate to put into law the UK’s commitment for 0.7% of GNI to be given in overseas aid? Surely, as the noble Baroness has already said, with cross-party support, there is no reason not to do this. Or is the fear of another Tory Back-Bench rebellion the real reason?
Baroness Northover
The key issue is whether we have made this commitment. We, this Government, have, and it is the first time that any G8 or G20 country has done so. I realise that a number of Scandinavian countries are ahead of us, but we are ahead of the previous Government, who, as the noble Lord knows, sank down to 0.3% in what they gave. In fact, before that, in 1999, it was just above 0.2%—a drop from the previous Government.
Lord Dholakia (LD)
My Lords, I congratulate my noble friend and the Department for International Development on transforming the lives of many poor people by encouraging the development of small businesses at local level and creating more accessible markets, particularly in Tanzania. Can my noble friend look at how we could further reduce poverty for those involved in agriculture? An example of this is the Mtwara region in Tanzania where there is access to 40 million hectares of arable land, of which only 25% is used.
Baroness Northover
That is an example of the work that DfID is undertaking as it seeks to transform agriculture and therefore the livelihoods of people in some of the poorest countries in the world. In Tanzania, DfID is currently working with the Aga Khan Development Network to try to increase productivity levels of farmers growing rice and sesame.
Sudan
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Lord Alton of Liverpool
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the humanitarian situation in Darfur and other parts of the Republic of Sudan following the decision of the Government of Sudan to suspend the work of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Baroness Northover (LD)
Around 3.5 million people in Darfur are in need of humanitarian assistance, including around 380,000 people who were displaced in 2013. The suspension of the ICRC’s work therefore comes at a critical time, as it supports more than a million people. We are seriously concerned about the impact of this decision on them.
Lord Alton of Liverpool (CB)
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness for that reply. Will she confirm that in the 10 years that have elapsed since I described to your Lordships’ House the conditions in the refugee camps in Darfur, some 2 million people have been displaced and between 200,000 and 300,000 people have died there? Some 57 peacekeepers and UNAMID personnel have been murdered, with no consequences for those responsible, while humanitarian agencies are expelled and aerial bombardment continues unabated, both in Darfur and in Kordofan. Why, while these serial violations occur, do we use British resources to pay off Sudan’s debts? Why, as we approach the fifth anniversary of the indictment for crimes against humanity of Field Marshal Omar al-Bashir, the President of Sudan, can he travel abroad with impunity and continue to control vast personal and commercial interests while openly boasting that 2014 will be the year that he will finish off what he began in Darfur 10 years ago?
Baroness Northover
My Lords, I pay tribute to the noble Lord for the spotlight that he has focused on the situation in Sudan. He is right about the dire situation of many of the people there. We have no doubt about the serious shortcomings of the Khartoum Government. The UK Government’s primary and only concern is the welfare of the Sudanese people. Our engagement and support is driven by what will make a difference to them. We cannot walk away and we work at every level to try to secure the kind of humanitarian access that is required, as illustrated by what the noble Lord said. We are not paying off the debt of the Sudanese Government.
Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead (Lab)
My Lords, President al-Bashir has been indicted by the ICC for multiple charges of crimes against humanity and genocide in Darfur, yet this cruel and vicious man is free to enjoy power and wealth while his regime’s oppression, corruption and aerial bombardments continue. Will the Minister give the House a clear undertaking that the UK will not follow the lead of the Netherlands and support calls being made for debt relief for a regime that does not care about the poverty and misery inflicted on Sudanese people?
Baroness Northover
We emphasise all the time that the Government of Sudan are responsible for meeting the needs of their own people. My right honourable friend the Minister for Africa raised a number of key issues relating to the areas the noble Baroness is talking about with the Government of Sudan and key regional figures in a visit last month and at the recent AU summit.
Lord Avebury (LD)
My Lords, will my noble friend acknowledge that the Government of Sudan, led by an alleged war criminal, as has been said, has embarked on the genocidal starvation of the population of South Kordofan and Blue Nile by denying all humanitarian access to these states, and by the systematic destruction from the air of their agriculture? Could fresh charges be laid against al-Bashir at the International Criminal Court in respect of these crimes? Will the Government think of convening an international conference on the means of deterring the bombings, including the use of drones against aircraft used for that purpose?
Baroness Northover
As indicated by the previous question, the Government of Sudan have a clear obligation to co-operate with the International Criminal Court in terms of Security Council Resolution 1593 and have repeatedly failed to do so. We continue to make clear to the Government of Sudan that we expect compliance with the arrest warrants for the ICC indictees. The noble Lord mentioned further challenges and a possible new Security Council resolution. I must tell him that we think it is unlikely that that will be achievable at the moment, but obviously we take very seriously the reports that are coming through to us.
Lord Anderson of Swansea (Lab)
My Lords, will the Government refuse to be part—directly or indirectly —of any debt relief operation?
Baroness Northover
We are not negotiating any debt relief with the Government of Sudan. As the noble Lord probably knows, that has to be achieved through the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries process.
Lord Elton (Con)
My Lords, will my noble friend tell us why it is unlikely that a second resolution could be achieved, what we are doing to change that situation and what other means there are to bring this terrible man to justice?
Baroness Northover
My Lords, if we could deliver what is already there, that would be a signal achievement, and we are doing our best to achieve that. The noble Lord will be aware that the aim to ensure that the dire situation of those in Sudan is addressed means that often one has to negotiate at every level of government to try to ensure that Sudan does not hold its people to ransom as we try to get humanitarian aid in.
Baroness Masham of Ilton (CB)
My Lords, have other aid organisations also been banned? It is most extraordinary that the Red Cross has been banned as it is a non-religious, non-political organisation.
Baroness Northover
We are hoping that the ICRC will be able to deliver the humanitarian relief that it was delivering before. Negotiations are at a delicate stage. A number of other international organisations are working with enormous difficulty in the area, some with greater reach than others. Some are still there, but a number have had to pull back.
International Development (Gender Equality) Bill
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Baroness Northover (LD)
My Lords, I am pleased to speak in support of the Private Member’s Bill sponsored by my noble friend Lord McColl and introduced so effectively by him. My noble friend has such a formidable commitment to development through his Mercy Ships and so many other efforts, as my noble friend Lady Jenkin said, and I, too, pay tribute to him. I love the image of our noble friend Lord McColl marching in his first demonstration in Nepal. It shows his level of commitment that that was in a march for dignity for gender equality. Like my noble friend Lady Jenkin and others, I, too, pay tribute to my honourable friend Bill Cash for having the vision, grasp and commitment to introduce and pilot this vital Bill through the other place. I pay tribute to the other noble Lords who have contributed today for their long and considerable contribution to addressing gender inequality worldwide.
There is no doubt that over the past few decades the world has made significant progress on improving the lives and prospects for girls and women. More girls are now going to school. Women are living longer and having fewer children, and more are in productive employment. As the noble Baroness, Lady Farrington, has made clear, there has been much change but, as she and others have noted, we are nowhere near where we need to be. As the noble Lord, Lord Quirk, also made clear, there have been major improvements in the position of women and girls, especially in education, but there is still much more to do.
By 2020, unless attitudes change and without steps to address child marriage, 50 million girls will have been forced into marriage before they reach their 15th birthday. As we have heard, violence against women and girls is a global pandemic: one in three women has experienced violence in her lifetime, a terrible statistic. My noble friend Lord McColl mentioned the dangers even in carrying out simple tasks such as collecting water.
My noble friend Lady Hodgson spelt out the level of violence against women and its devastating effects. It was a milestone when rape was rightly recognised as a weapon of war. Now we must ensure, as she and other noble Lords have said, that women are at the table in peace negotiations. I, too, pay tribute to my right honourable friend William Hague for what he is doing to recognise and combat violence against women in conflict. His involvement is extremely welcome.
Ours is a changing world, and the challenges that girls and women face will become more pressing. More girls and women will live in urban areas and in areas of conflict. The impact of natural resource scarcity and climate change will be disproportionately hard on girls and women because they are so often at the margins. They are in real danger of being locked out of the economic progress that we see in some of the developing countries at the moment.
My noble friend Lady Hussein-Ece flags up the situation of women in Afghanistan. She knows that we are very actively engaged there. We are seeking to uphold women’s rights as an important element of DfID’s strategy in Afghanistan, so we provide grants for Afghan women’s organisations that emphasise the strengthening of civil society. They emphasise various areas, including strengthening women’s rights and access to justice, and we are providing £7.1 million to the Ministry of the Interior to help to improve the Afghan police’s role to protect and uphold women’s rights. My noble friend will also know how we are supporting girls’ education in Afghanistan. However, we are also keenly aware that things can go backwards as well as forwards. We assure her that we remain active and vigilant in this regard. We are looking into the recent reports that she flagged up, and I will provide noble Lords with more information on that as soon as we have it. I shall put it in a letter to my noble friend, copy it to other noble Lords who have participated in the debate and put a copy in the Library. We know the importance of ensuring that things go forwards, not backwards.
That is why action to improve the lives of girls and women is rightly front and centre in UK development. We need to turn the challenges of a changing world into opportunities. As we all know, gender equality is a critical building block for progress towards building prosperity. Time and again we see that investing in girls and women leads to incredible returns, not only for them but for their families and communities and for their economies and countries. When a woman generates her own income, she reinvests 90% of it in her family and community. Getting more girls into secondary education is shown to boost a country’s economic growth, a point that the noble Lord, Lord Quirk, picked up.
The UK is already helping to change the lives of millions of girls and women for the better. As noble Lords will know, DfID has put gender equality front and centre for the very reasons that noble Lords have laid out. Our strategic vision for girls and women, launched in March 2011, aims to unlock the potential of girls and women in order to stop poverty before it starts. Maintaining our important cross-party consensus, I, too, pay tribute to the previous Government’s recognition of this and to the remarkable vision of my right honourable friend Andrew Mitchell when he came into the department.
Supporting girls and women enables them to have a voice in decision-making in their household, community and country, and in politics and business. My noble friends Lady Hussein-Ece and Lady Jenkin and others have made the case for this very clearly. It gives women and girls the freedom to exercise choice in their lives: to be able to choose to complete education and to benefit from paid work and to choose whether, when and whom to marry. It recognises they should have control over their own bodies and be safe from violence; control over their own income and other resources such as food, water and energy; and equal legal rights and access to justice.
My noble friend Lady Jenkin has given figures for DfID’s work, some of which bear repeating here because they are very important. The UK aid programme has already helped 270,000 girls to go to secondary school. By 2015 we shall have saved the lives of at least 50,000 women during pregnancy and childbirth, enabled 10 million more women to use modern methods of family planning, improved access to financial services for more than 18 million women, secured access to land for 4.5 million women and helped 10 million women to access justice through the courts, police and legal assistance.
We are supporting the efforts to end female genital mutilation worldwide through a £35 million programme, the first time that a programme like that has been put in place. Noble Lords will know that yesterday was the international day to end FGM, the first such day, and I was struck and impressed by the level of social media involvement in that by institutions from all over the world, organisations from Africa, Australia, the United States and the EU and many organisations within the UK, as well as the accounts in the Times and the campaign by the Guardian. I pay tribute to those who have brought it to this point and I hope that we will indeed end this within a generation or, hopefully, before.
We are determined to do more to end violence against women and girls. Last November the Secretary of State for International Development, who has been a strong supporter of the Bill, launched an international call to action on violence against women and girls in humanitarian emergencies. The result was Governments and aid agencies from around the world signing up to a groundbreaking commitment to make the safety of girls and women a life-saving priority in our response to emergencies.
I attended that conference and was very struck by the commitments that were made and that we must hold countries and institutions to. Like my noble friend Lord Howell, I welcome the new Commonwealth charter with its commitments in this area. Drafting things is the first stage, signing up is the second and implementing is the third. We need everyone’s efforts to ensure that that third stage is in fact reached. In June this year the UK will host an international summit where we will challenge the culture of impunity that exists for sexual violence in conflict, and work to ensure that more perpetrators are held to account through improved international collaboration.
So the Bill comes at a critical point in development. Although we have come so far in improving the lives of girls and women, there is much further to go. There are still too many girls and women whose potential is wasted. As my noble friend Lady Hodgson said, holding back women impairs all development. It will not be easy to reach these women as we are talking about some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world, so we must keep up the pressure, the resources and the visibility and lead by example.
I am the first to recognise, as did my noble friends Lady Jenkin and Lord Loomba and others, that in this country we have a way to go in terms of gender equality in Parliament, in business and in society.
If the Bill is passed, it will mean that the Secretary of State for International Development must have regard to reducing gender inequality before making decisions to provide development assistance under the International Development Act 2002. It will give our commitment to addressing gender inequality in countries where we provide development assistance a statutory footing, enshrined in law. It will raise the bar on the way that gender equality is considered, crystallising it in the early stages of the programme development.
Gender is not something that can be tacked on to our development and humanitarian assistance programmes for the very reasons that noble Lords have laid out. The Bill will introduce an annual reporting duty in respect of gender through an amendment to the International Development (Reporting and Transparency) Act. My noble friend Lord Loomba cogently argued that it is by this kind of monitoring and transparency that we ensure the action and commitment that we need.
I note that the Bill will not introduce any significant costs in implementation—not that any noble Lord flagged that up—or impose additional bureaucracy in decision-making or slow processes down—not that any noble Lord flagged that up. It is about ensuring that Ministers and officials fully take into account the interests of girls and women as well as those of others in determining the UK’s bilateral aid programme.
I welcome the debate today and especially the cross-party support we have heard for gender equality. It is heartening to hear so many positive views on the important role that girls and women should have in the world and on their right to a better life. This Bill will help keep girls and women at the forefront in the delivery of development assistance and in the planning that goes into it. The path to sustainable development cannot be achieved where half the population is locked out. Improving the lives of women and girls is already a top priority in our international development work, but this Bill is another important step forward enshrining our commitment to gender equality in law, and the Government are proud to support it.
Water Bill
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Earl Cathcart
I thank my noble friend for correcting my wrong conclusion that the power lies with Ofwat. I should probably change my question to ask what the Secretary of State is going to do to change his attitude in this regard.
Baroness Northover (LD)
My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Oxburgh, and my noble friend Lady Parminter for tabling these amendments, which give us an important opportunity to discuss the role of water meters. In many ways, the debate follows on from the comments of my noble friend on water efficiency in the context of sustainable water supplies, which is the context in which noble Lords have addressed these amendments.
I will take the comments of the noble Lord, Lord Oxburgh, on codification and simplification back to the department. I noted that, as he made those comments, the noble Baroness, Lady O’Neill, with her wide experience was nodding behind him. Noble Lords are very good at holding the Government to account in this regard, and so they should.
I will start by laying out the Government’s position in relation to water meters. We are seeking to strike a careful balance. I note that noble Lords feel that we have not struck the balance quite correctly, but I will outline our position. We agree that meters provide a fair way to pay and we want companies to do more to promote metering to those who would benefit. However, we are also conscious that universal metering could lead to increased bills for some struggling customers, which is a point that the noble Lord, Lord Curry, referred to. I thank him for noting that, even if he then went on to say that he did not really agree with it. That is why we do not wish to impose a blanket approach to metering across the country.
This balance reflects the current legislation. Section 144A of the Water Industry Act 1991 ensures that any customer can request a meter from their water company. The company must then fit a meter, which it does free of charge. All the companies also allow their customers a cooling-off period of one year should they wish to revert to paying according to rateable value. As a result, there is a permissive position there. On the very rare occasions where fitting a meter would be disproportionately costly, the company offers an assessed charge, based on an assessment of the water actually used by that household.
However, Section 144B restricts the power of water companies to impose universal metering across all of their household customers, which is the issue that we are addressing here. There are circumstances, as noble Lords have noted, in which this restriction does not apply, which are set out in the Water Industry (Prescribed Conditions) Regulations 1999. For example, companies whose areas of appointment have been designated by the Secretary of State as areas of serious water stress—based on advice from the Environment Agency—may impose metering. They may also do so where the household has particularly high water use for a number of specified reasons, such as filling a swimming pool.
As my noble friend indicated, the purpose of her amendment is to add another reason to allow unrestricted metering. That would allow all water companies to meter all their customers, if they considered that this would enable them to meet their statutory duty to supply water or their statutory duty to promote the efficient use of water. About 41% of all homes already have a meter, and we expect this to rise to 50% by 2015. Anglian Water and South West Water already have 70% metering. A number of companies in areas of serious water stress are in the process of rolling out universal metering or have plans to do so. These include Southern Water, Thames Water, Sutton and East Surrey Water, Affinity Water and South East Water. Noble Lords have made a powerful case for why these developments are taking place.
However, we must recognise that the costs and benefits of metering vary from region to region. The evidence suggests that benefits on a scale that outweigh the costs of metering will only be found in areas where incentivising reduced water usage is of critical importance—that is to say, water-stressed areas, where universal metering is already a possibility. As I have noted, we are concerned that there are costs associated with implementing universal metering, which are funded through the bills of all customers in the region. We have always been clear that, with climate change and population growth, the case for universal metering may change, but it may do so at different times for different areas.
The amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Oxburgh, would ensure that the Secretary of State has powers to allow metering of water supplies in areas that are currently or may become water stressed and where metering may generate other social benefits. I confirm that the Secretary of State already has these powers. He has the power to issue the prescribed conditions regulations, as I have already mentioned. For example, at present under the regulations, water companies in areas classified as seriously water stressed must evaluate whether compulsory metering is the most effective way to address their supply-demand balance alongside other options when preparing water resource management plans.
The Secretary of State recently asked the Environment Agency for updated advice on the designation of serious water stress. The new methodology defines serious water stress as occurring in areas where either the current household demand for water is a high proportion of the rainfall which is available to meet that demand or the future household demand for water is likely to be a high proportion of the rainfall available to meet that demand.
The Secretary of State already has the power to revise and reissue the prescribed conditions regulations—clearly, my noble friend Lord Selborne knew that—but I assure my noble friends Lord Cathcart and Lord Selborne that we hear what they say in this regard. My right honourable friend the Secretary of State would of course revise and reissue these regulations if he believed that allowing universal metering to be rolled out in a larger number of areas would lead to social benefits. We will keep these regulations under review. However, as I have said, I have already set out that at present we consider that the existing regulations strike the appropriate balance.
I heard with great interest what the noble Lord, Lord Oxburgh, said about smart meters and his other proposals. In relation to the installing of meters, restrictions on the power of companies to charge by meter do not extend to their power to fit a meter. Any company may do that and some, such as Anglian Water, have a policy of doing so for the reasons that the noble Lord laid out. We recognise fully the important role that water meters can play. I hope the fact that I have been able to spell out in more detail the Government’s position on this has assisted noble Lords and that they are willing to withdraw their amendment.
Lord Oxburgh
I thank all noble Lords who have participated in what has been a very useful discussion about metering. Can I just be clear in my understanding that it is the Government’s position that water companies already have the authority to install water meters anywhere they choose and that the only restriction is on charging?
Baroness Northover
As the noble Lord is aware, the emphasis at the moment is on water-stressed areas, which are more widely defined in the reissued regulations that I have just mentioned. I also mentioned that a customer can ask for a meter. I note that there is a bit of a gap between that position and the position for which noble Lords are arguing. If I have stated that incorrectly in any way, I will make sure that the noble Lord has a letter about it. It would be useful anyway if all this was laid out clearly to noble Lords who are interested in it, because it is obviously an area that concerns people and they want to have it clear in their minds.
Lord Oxburgh
That is extremely useful. If the Government are prepared to move at all on this area, it might be valuable for the Minister to hold a small meeting, as he has done most helpfully on various topics in recent weeks, to discuss whether the existing legislation covers the desirable possibilities or whether there is something that might meet the concerns that have been expressed here and would also be acceptable to the Government. We do not want—dare I say it—the water horse to bolt too soon.
Baroness Northover
We cannot be having that. On behalf of my noble friend Lord de Mauley, I can say that we would be happy to facilitate such a meeting.
Gaza
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Baroness Falkner of Margravine
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assistance they have given to the people of Gaza over the last three months.
Baroness Northover (LD)
My Lords, the humanitarian situation in Gaza is precarious. There is a significant danger that food, water and fuel will run out later this year. The UK is a leading provider of humanitarian support, which includes supporting the UN Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, to provide basic services, providing food vouchers to vulnerable households, supporting the International Committee of the Red Cross to provide humanitarian assistance and supporting the UN Access Coordination Unit to assist the passage of personnel and humanitarian aid.
Baroness Falkner of Margravine (LD)
My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend for that response. The humanitarian aid is terribly important, particularly when the 1.7 million people in Gaza are now living life at breaking point, with 11,000 people displaced by last month’s floods. Fuel shortages are such that donkey carts have replaced cars as a means of transport, the streets are overflowing with raw sewage and, with nearly 50% unemployment, the situation is like a tinderbox. The United Nations has said that Gaza will be unliveable by 2020, so what are Her Majesty’s Government doing to facilitate Hamas and Fatah talks, and more importantly talks between the Palestinian Authority and Israel, so that a final settlement can be reached for people to live in civilised form next door to each other?
Baroness Northover
My noble friend is right. The UN has described Gaza as being currently in a state of de-development. It does indeed predict that by 2020 the place may be unliveable. The recent blockades and closures of the tunnels have seen the further loss of 20,000 jobs in a dire situation. We strongly support the peace process. Meanwhile we are of course asking Israel to ease the blockade immediately, but in supporting the peace process we hope to see a two-state solution. The aim is to achieve a secure Israel alongside a sovereign and viable Palestinian state, with all issues—borders, Jerusalem, refugees, all of them—addressed.
Lord Warner (Lab)
Is the Minister aware that the situation in Gaza has not become intolerable just in the last year or so? It has been intolerable ever since Operation Cast Lead. In the past six months, how many meetings have this Government had with the Israeli Government about lifting this blockade, which is a cause of great humanitarian suffering to the Gaza population, 50% of whom are children?
Baroness Northover
I shall write to the noble Lord with the number, but I know from all the Written Answers that I sign off the pressure that we have been seeking to put on the Israeli Government to lift this blockade, recognising that an improved economy in Gaza is essential for the people of Gaza, but also for the security of Israel.
Baroness Deech (CB)
My Lords, the Minister will be aware that today is Holocaust Memorial Day, and the Prime Minister has just announced the setting up of a Holocaust commission, but under Hamas in Gaza, teaching about the Holocaust is a crime and its official policy is to deny the Holocaust. What steps would the Minister advise in the interests of bringing peace, to ensure rationality and peace education for the children of Gaza, alongside accountability for funds, which is another matter?
Baroness Northover
I pay tribute to the noble Baroness for the work she has done on ensuring that the Holocaust is never forgotten. I was pleased that my daughter asked me this year to take her to Auschwitz, which I did. I mark Holocaust Memorial Day—it must never be forgotten. The UK Government keep a very close watching brief over what is taught in schools both in Israel and the Occupied Territories to see what is put into textbooks. There have been improvements there, and in lessons, but there is still a long way to go. The noble Baroness is clearly right that trying to ensure that children in all communities respect each other and other communities is vital.
The Lord Bishop of Wakefield
My Lords, following Egypt’s closure of the tunnels, which has already been referred to, will the Minister give an assurance that the Department for International Development will adjust its aid package accordingly, to try to address some of the terrible suffering to which we have already heard reference?
Baroness Northover
The United Kingdom and the EU are putting in a massive amount of assistance, which is much needed in Gaza for the reasons the right reverend Prelate has given. Gaza has suffered a lot from the closure of the tunnels. However, the tunnels themselves help to fund Hamas and this is an opportunity to encourage Israel to open the borders there and to support the moderate elements in Gaza. Certainly, at the moment, the international organisations are saying that the underlying causes of the problems need to be addressed. The immediate shortages are being dealt with adequately.
Baroness Morris of Bolton (Con)
My Lords, I declare my interest as president of Medical Aid for Palestinians and the trade envoy to the Palestinian territories. On a more practical note, some industrial fuel went into Gaza between 14 and 20 January. However, it is not enough and much below consumption levels. Hospitals have regular power cuts and some families have only 12 hours of power a day. The most vulnerable families are suffering terrible burns from using inadequate heating and cooking utensils. What are we doing to ensure that more fuel is going in now? It will take a long time to solve the peace process but we can do something to alleviate the hardship now.
Baroness Northover
As I mentioned, those shortages are being addressed. Qatar and Turkey recently brought fuel into Gaza. However, the most important issue here is to address the underlying root causes of these problems.
Girls’ Education Challenge
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Baroness Hodgson of Abinger
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what responses they have received to the Girls’ Education Challenge, to expand education opportunities to marginalised girls, from non-governmental organisations, charities and the private sector.
Baroness Northover (LD)
My Lords, in 2011, DfID established the Girls’ Education Challenge, the world’s largest global fund dedicated to girls’ education. This will reach up to 1 million of the world’s poorest girls to ensure that they receive a good quality education in order to transform their future. The initiative has been enthusiastically received by NGOs, charities and the private sector alike.
Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Con)
My Lords, I congratulate Her Majesty’s Government on all that they are achieving with the Girls’ Education Challenge. I know that the Government recognise how critical it is to keep girls at school. Will the Minister tell us what progress has been made to retain girls in secondary schools so that they can go on to complete their education? How does the Girls’ Education Challenge particularly address the obstacles of keeping girls safe on their way to and from school, as sexual violence and forced child marriage both cause girls to fall out of education?
Baroness Northover
I congratulate my noble friend on her first Question in the House. She is absolutely right: educating girls is one of the best investments to reduce poverty. As many noble Lords know, educating beyond primary level, which is what she is flagging here, improves a girl’s life chances and delays early motherhood so that she is more likely to have healthy, better nourished children. In fact, ensuring that girls have between seven and 10 years’ education has a decisive influence over whether they can choose whom they marry. The Girls’ Education Challenge is concentrating particularly on supporting girls to progress through secondary school. My noble friend is absolutely right: ensuring that girls are safe on their way to school and at school is extremely important, but this is being addressed.
Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead (Lab)
My Lords, does the Minister share my concern that DfID’s business case for the Girls’ Education Challenge fund actually fails to list tackling violence against girls as one of its critical success criteria? Given that millions of girls are sexually assaulted at or on their way to school, does she agree that tackling gender-based violence and the need for social norm change should be priorities and should surely be included in the interventions currently taking place under the GEC fund?
Baroness Northover
The noble Baroness is right that combating violence against girls, as I have just addressed, is extremely important. It is no use trying to encourage girls to come to school if, on the way, they are attacked or will be attacked within the school. As the noble Baroness knows, dealing with this is a high priority right across DfID’s work, including in its education programmes.
Baroness Hussein-Ece (LD)
My Lords, my noble friend will be aware of the particular challenges in Afghanistan, which is part of this programme. After the withdrawal planned for later this year, what steps will be taken to ensure that education for girls is maintained at the level it is currently at and to ensure that it continues?
Baroness Northover
When troops are drawn back from Afghanistan, as my noble friend will know, DfID’s commitment will be maintained because we are well aware that a more peaceful future is likely to be secured through the development of Afghanistan. Engaging girls and women is absolutely vital to that, and education is all part of it.
Baroness Howarth of Breckland (CB)
My Lords, education for disabled young people is even more difficult in areas of extreme poverty. Is there any focus in this programme on disabled girls? I declare an interest as a trustee of Livability, which works in Asia with disabled young girls.
Baroness Northover
The noble Baroness may like to know that my honourable friend Lynne Featherstone has a particular focus on assisting those with disabilities in developing countries. The projects being taken forward at the moment are in Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Afghanistan and Sierra Leone. There is great determination to make sure that schooling is inclusive, whether it is for able-bodied or disabled children.
Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top (Lab)
My Lords, I am sure the Minister recognises that even at primary level it is frequently difficult to keep young girls in school, partly because poverty means that they are needed at home. What will the Government be doing to make sure that this issue is really addressed in the post-2015 agenda and that we do not assume that, because it has been part of a millennium development goal so far, everything is okay? The reality is that, unless the quality of the education is really good, the family loses faith in the worth of continuing to send a young girl to school.
Baroness Northover
The noble Baroness is right, and that is one of the lessons from the MDGs. Looking forward beyond 2015, it is not just a case of getting children into school but of making sure that they stay in school. DfID built into its programmes consideration of the results—that is, ensuring that children stay in education and that they learn while they are there, and that teachers and educational programmes are in place. One reason for there being a focus on secondary education is that children are required to have gone through primary education.
Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Con)
My Lords, will my noble friend join me in welcoming to this House, for its First Reading today, the International Development (Gender Equality) Bill and in wishing it a safe and speedy passage?
Baroness Northover
My noble friend’s timing is extremely good because, as she says, the Bill has its First Reading here today, and I welcome its arrival. As she and noble Lords will know, DfID already puts girls and women front and centre, and this Bill, which I am sure will have all-party support, will ensure that that continues to happen. It will ensure, for example, that the 2006 international development Act is amended so that that commitment is duly reported to Parliament. I think that this Bill has more cross-party support than some.
Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)
My Lords, I also congratulate Ministers, but how is DfID monitoring these research phases of the projects and when are they likely to be completed?
Baroness Northover
DfID constantly monitors its programmes, including these. As I mentioned before, it is looking for results to be secured, which, as I said, means making sure that there is high-quality education and that children attend all the way through so that they reach the next stage.
Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne (LD)
My Lords, is the noble Baroness aware that in Afghanistan girls are not allowed to know their father—their basic heritage? Given that deliberate depth of ignorance in the female sex in Afghanistan, and since the UK will have no locus following our withdrawal, how does the noble Baroness feel that we can influence such a tragic and miserable situation through educational means?
Baroness Northover
My noble friend is right that there are many challenges in Afghanistan; but one of the encouraging things over the past few years has been the extension of the education of girls and women and their absolute determination that that is going to continue. That will help to underpin what DfID is doing in this area.
Animal Welfare: Methods of Slaughter
Baroness Northover Excerpts(12 years, 2 months ago)
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Baroness Northover (LD)
My Lords, there are many speakers in the next debate. When the clock says “2”, the speaker has had two minutes.
Lord Gold (Con)
Let me first declare an interest. I am an observant Jew who eats only kosher meat, meat that has been killed by religious slaughter. I am not as observant as the next speaker, but I have an interest in allowing me and my co-religionists to practise our religion. I am sure that Rabbi Sacks—the noble Lord, Lord Sacks—will say a little about kosher meat in that respect. As other speakers have said, and as the noble Baroness, Lady Deech, has just made clear, the number of animals slaughtered for kosher meat without stunning is very small indeed.
The focus of this debate has not been on the effects of stunning and how it goes wrong. In researching for today’s debate, I have been horrified at some of the things that go wrong. The Vegetarians International Voice for Animals, which is opposed to religious slaughter, states:
“Tens of millions of animals are being ineffectively stunned and are regaining consciousness while they bleed to death”.
That is a horrific number.
On looking at the legal position, European Council regulations recognise that the stunning methods listed in their own literature are not the only methods. Those intimately involved in this work believe and argue that Jewish religious slaughter, properly undertaken and as described by the noble Lord, Lord Winston, also constitutes acceptable stunning because it instantly cuts off the blood supply to the brain. That comes within the definition of stunning provided in the regulations. The definition is,
“any intentionally induced process which causes loss of consciousness and sensibility without pain, including any process resulting in instantaneous death”.
I understand that, properly undertaken, that is exactly what Jewish religious slaughter seeks to achieve.
The welfare of the animal pre-slaughter is paramount in the Jewish religion. Any animal or bird which is even slightly harmed before slaughter is not considered suitable for kosher consumption. Special care is taken to ensure that the animal is calm before slaughter. The use of electric prods and the like is absolutely prohibited. It is also the case that the European regulations expressly respect the freedom of religion and the right to manifest religion or belief in worship, teaching, practice and observance, as enshrined in Article 10 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union which states:
“Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right includes freedom to change religion or belief and freedom”—
Baroness Northover
I remind the noble Lord that we are in a timed debate and he is already 50% over, if my maths is right.
Education: Foreign Language Teaching
Baroness Northover Excerpts(12 years, 2 months ago)
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Baroness Northover (LD)
My Lords, I remind noble Lords that we are about to begin a time-limited debate. As far as I can see, there is no slippage time. Therefore, for those making Back-Bench speeches, when the clock reaches “5” they have had their five minutes.
Children: Affordable Childcare
Baroness Northover Excerpts(12 years, 2 months ago)
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Baroness Northover (LD)
I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Massey, for tabling today’s debate on access to affordable childcare and for introducing it so effectively. She has a long track record in fighting for the rights of children and families, as I know from sharing with her the position of trustee for UNICEF, a position which my noble friend Lady Walmsley also held. I also thank all noble Lords who have spoken in today’s debate. As ever, this has been a very powerful debate and we all agree that the cost and quality of childcare matters. As the noble Baronesses, Lady Massey and Lady Bakewell, my noble friend Lady Jenkin and others have pointed out, life has changed over the past few decades. Of course men and women have long worked but as social and economic patterns have changed, so too has the way that children are brought up. Increasingly, from the Second World War onwards, women took up paid work and, what is more, nuclear families often lived away from other family members. As the noble Baroness, Lady Bakewell, said, we have here a large-scale social change.
Many of us here had the experience of the huge challenges of arranging paid childcare, as the first ones to do so in our families. The noble Lord, Lord Graham, thought that I might inject my own experience and I must not disappoint him. I recall my experience as a lecturer at UCL, returning to work with a baby and finding that I would have needed to reserve a place in the nursery at the moment of conception, not birth. My baby accompanied me, and I kept him as quiet as I could for the first few months until he secured his place. I knew to act faster when I became pregnant the next time. Although that then almost obliterated my salary, I had a very good and wonderful workplace nursery.
However, I identify with those who felt guilt, as expressed by the noble Baronesses, Lady Massey, Lady Bakewell, and Lady Morgan, my noble friend Lady Jenkin and others. I still have this image of Munch’s “The Scream” from when my second child’s face was one large, gaping, wailing hole as I left him one day in the nursery when he was aged about one. I wondered what I must be doing to him. I also recall the black looks of my male academic colleagues at the Wellcome Institute as I had to leave work when the nursery closed at 5.30 pm, but their wives were looking after their children and they did not have to worry about it. As the noble Baroness, Lady Prosser, mentioned, I then had to carry my tired children home and the evenings were no fun.
I recall when I was first here phoning home and speaking to my then six year-old daughter, to discover that her eight year-old brother was in possession of a power drill—and did it matter? No adult was at home and the person supposedly looking after them had taken my other son to something. I was phoning from just outside the Chamber while waiting for a vote and the noble Lord, Lord Peston, was on the other phone. He heard my desperate reaction as I heard about the power drill and reassured me that they would survive, and they did—but they might not have. So I am extremely familiar, as so many here are, with what this actually means.
It is now commonplace that both parents will return to work before their children are fully grown. I am glad also that we have made the moves we have to make sure that there is shared parental leave. We are not talking here only of children who are under school age but of those going through school as well, including their holidays. Of course, not all parents will want to place their children in childcare and parents should have that choice, but for those who return to work who, as I say, are increasing in numbers, it is essential that they have access to good quality childcare. I am sure that we all agree with that and I do not quite follow the points made by the noble Baroness, Lady Morgan, when there had been so much agreement across the Chamber. We all understand the significance of this.
Childcare is obviously particularly important for enabling mothers to work, as the noble Baroness, Lady Prosser, my noble friend Lady Walmsley and others have said. That is because it remains the case that the primary responsibility for children is seen as being the mother’s, rightly or wrongly. We know from many surveys that women still carry out the bulk of caring for children and for the home so, as the noble Baroness, Lady Bakewell, said, this is all part of a long process of establishing more equality for women.
The noble Baroness, Lady Massey, asked whether we are facing a childcare crunch. I do not agree; what I said about my own experience and what others have said indicate that as this social change goes on, childcare has been a challenge all the way down and continues to be so. It was so under the previous Government and I pay them credit for what they did. We have been building on that and are taking a number of positive steps that are beginning to demonstrate an impact but, as the noble Baroness and others all said, all Governments have faced this challenge and will do so. We all, from whatever party, need to continue to address this. It is best to be working together on this, in my view.
Research shows that more than half of stay-at-home mothers would prefer to be in paid employment and that nearly a quarter of employed mothers would like to increase their working hours—although they can do so only if they can arrange reliable, convenient, affordable, and good quality childcare, as the noble Baroness, Lady Prosser, and others made very clear.
As anyone knows if they have left a child in care, knowing that they are well looked after is absolutely vital. It is complex and not easy to leave your child with another but when you see that they are safe and happy, that is of key importance. When I saw my daughter gazing with adoration at the wonderful person who looked after her, that too made me happy. My noble friend Lady Walmsley is quite right about the benefits of good quality care. As I listened to the noble Baroness, Lady King, I also recalled that when my daughter was about seven days old that same young lady, who is now a university student, left a particularly large wet patch on Paddy Ashdown’s carpet here. I was trying to maintain my career, which meant that my daughter came with me, so that swam into mind. I left very rapidly then and this may be the first evidence that my noble friend Lord Ashdown has that I, or she, was responsible for that wet patch.
The noble Baroness, Lady Massey, mentioned that childcare is a low-wage profession with high turnover. We agree with the noble Baroness that the quality of the workforce is key; evidence shows that this is extremely important. The Government have introduced the early years teacher status from September 2013, in recognition of the impact of graduate teachers on children’s development. We have introduced apprenticeships and bursaries of £3,000 to increase the number of staff educated at least to A-level and to have English and maths GCSE. I learnt quite a bit from the person who was caring for my daughter about how to bring up three children who were close in age and in competition with each other. At that stage she had been taught but had not had her own children, which she now has.
We all agree that we need to aspire to having good quality childcare available at a reasonable cost, and that it is vital that we get that right. Noble Lords have also emphasised the economic benefits that this would bring to the country, as my noble friend Lord Kirkwood and others have emphasised, as well as to the families themselves. We realise the significance of that.
As I say, we recognise what the previous Administration achieved, but all would recognise—this has run through the debate—that more needs to be done. That is why we have taken a number of steps to seek to reduce parents’ childcare bills. In September 2010 the Government increased the free entitlement to early education for three and four year-olds to 15 hours a week—570 hours per year—up from 12.5 hours a week. My noble friend Lord Kirkwood and others are right to emphasise the importance of early years education. It so happens that early years education can also help in terms of childcare, but I would not necessarily conflate the two.
However, 96% of three and four year-olds are now accessing a free place. As my noble friend Lady Tyler mentioned, from September this entitlement was extended to around 130,000 disadvantaged two year-olds, and it will be extended still further from September 2014 to two year-olds from working households on low incomes, for whom the costs of childcare are such a burden, and more than 260,000 children will be eligible. My noble friend Lady Walmsley stressed the importance of that educational provision.
The total funding for early years education has also increased by more than £1 billion over the life of this Parliament. My noble friend Lady Jenkin is right about the proportion of GDP that we put into this yet, as she emphasised, we still see the challenges in the cost both to the state and to families. The noble Baroness, Lady King, talked about universal free childcare. As I say, there is universal childcare for three and four year-olds, and the Government are proud of extending that to 40% of two year-olds. There are arguments for extending that further, of course, but the Department for Education estimates that universal full-time childcare for children aged one to four would cost £18 billion. She seemed to indicate support for that by her reference to her colleague in the Commons but it sounds from what the noble Baroness, Lady Morgan, indicated that that is not actually an agreed position. That kind of provision was made in some countries, obviously—I remember visiting nurseries in Russia—but it sounds as if the Labour Party has not signed up to that.
Baroness King of Bow
I would like to clarify that the shadow childcare Minister has said that this is an aspiration to which we are attached. It is a vision that we recognise we should work towards, and I hope that perhaps all sides of this Chamber agree with that.
Baroness Northover
I appreciate that clarification. I am sure that that is something that a lot of us would ideally wish to see.
However, on its own, simply providing more funding will not halt the long-term increase in childcare costs or provide the childcare places that we need for the future. Nurseries find it difficult to expand without jumping through many hoops, especially in planning. In addition, a complex registration system and duplicatory inspection regimes have created barriers to new entrants to the childcare market. We are not making enough use of the many excellent facilities in our schools. In Denmark, for example, 88% of six to eight year-olds take advantage of before-school and after-school or holiday care, compared with only 22% in England. What the noble Baroness, Lady Morgan, said about wraparound care in schools was not exactly accurate; a number of the schools that she was referring to were simply pointing parents in the direction of care, not providing it themselves. Unfortunately, I do not think that in the past this has been cracked, and it is therefore important to be clear about what the situation actually is.
I assure the noble Baroness, Lady Massey, that we are indeed looking at this strategically. Our reforms focus on three key areas: increasing supply—we are working very actively to expand the number of places available with childminders and in nurseries and schools; streamlining inspection so that we can focus on what matters to improve children’s development and ensure that they are safe; and reforming financial support to parents, making it simpler and more consistent. That is an issue that the noble Baroness emphasised. On the simplification of funding streams, the Government are carefully considering how best to achieve that as the universal credit and the new tax-free childcare system schema are rolled out. It is important to get the balance right between stable funding for providers and flexibility and choice for parents.
As noble Lords have said, we need to increase supply. We are doing what we can to halt the long-term decline in childminder numbers—that has been a very long-term decline, as anyone can see from the figures; it is not recent—and provide new opportunities for high-quality private and voluntary nurseries and schools. Noble Lords here will be well aware that we are coming up to day four of Report on the Children and Families Bill, and we are legislating to enable the creation of new childminder agencies to make it simpler for people to become childminders, to provide training and support and to help parents to access home-based care. We are making it easier for schools to expand to take two year-olds and to offer out-of-school-hours childcare. In February we will have the first results from schools regarding our demonstration projects on this, and we will be assessing how they are working and what can be done to expand that. So we are taking a number of measures to try to address this.
The noble Baroness, Lady Massey, asked particularly about disabled children. I assure her that from September, as I hope she will know from the Children and Families Bill, all children with special educational needs and disabilities will for the first time be entitled to 15 hours a week of government-funded early education from the age of two. I appreciate that she is also talking about childcare in addition to that, though, and she is right to ensure that what is being provided covers all children.
A few noble Lords have made reference to children’s centres and indicated that they thought that these were closing in large numbers. We are well aware of the great services that children’s centres provide to their local communities for prospective parents before and after their babies are born, for the parents and children themselves until they are five. The noble Baronesses, Lady Massey and Lady Prosser, for example, thought that 576 Sure Start centres had closed. In fact that is not the case; as of 30 November, fewer than 2% had closed and more than 3,000 were open. The question of Sure Start comes up quite often, and as I looked at this carefully I found, and this is worth emphasising, that children’s centres provide only a very tiny proportion—less than 1%—of all registered childcare places. That does not mean to say that they not of value, but they are not central, and have not been, to what we are talking about today.
With regard to inspection, we have to ensure that while increased choice is important, if provision was not of a high standard it would leave parents with no real choice at all and be detrimental for children. The noble Lord, Lord Graham, made that point very clearly. Growth should not be at the expense of quality. Ofsted has recently announced reforms to early years inspection, and expectations will be higher and accountability increased. I have a lot of detail about the inspection process that I am happy to write to my noble friend Lady Walmsley about. She was also asking about childminder agencies. We are working with 20 organisations to trial how childminder agencies will work. As part of that, we are considering with Ofsted the most effective way of ensuring the quality of those childminders registered with an agency. I am happy to spell that out in greater detail, given what I need to cover.
We remain committed to helping families with the cost of living and supporting parents to work. We are improving support for middle-income families by introducing a new tax-free childcare scheme. Noble Lords will, I hope, know the details of that. Once the scheme is fully established it will benefit 2.5 million working families. For low earners, government will continue to pay up to 70% of childcare costs through working tax credit and universal credit. I am again happy to put details in a letter to noble Lords who have taken part in this debate. The right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Ripon and Leeds and my noble friend Lord Kirkwood asked about this. We are already investing £2.2 billion in universal credit childcare support and making a further investment of £200 million to provide extra support for working families earning enough to pay income tax. We are considering responses to a recent consultation on tax-free childcare and will respond shortly.
These are positive indications that the package of reforms that the Government have put in place are starting to have the desired impact. The signs are promising in terms of the cost of provision and maternal employment. The National Day Nurseries Association reported in July that 58% of nurseries have frozen fees. The average fee increase across all nurseries was 1.5%, which is well below inflation, and 200,000 women with children have gone back to work since 2011, which is more than during the five years before that.
However, we are not complacent. We know that a great deal needs to be done. We need to encourage growth in every part of the childcare market, place quality at the heart of childcare provision, create genuine choice of providers for parents and ensure that work really does pay. We are talking about a long and very important social change. This has been a very important debate. The right reverend Prelate, who will be much missed when he takes retirement, pointed out that it is part of the weft and woof of our society. It is vital that we have flexible, accessible, high-quality childcare available to those parents who wish to access it. We know that for better equality between the genders more parents will be seeking such assistance. I am glad to that so many noble Lords have contributed to this important debate. Their contributions have been very thoughtful. Once again, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Massey, for securing this debate.
Syria: Aid
Baroness Northover Excerpts(12 years, 3 months ago)
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Baroness Boothroyd (CB)
My Lords, I beg leave to ask a Question of which I have given private notice.
Baroness Northover (LD)
My Lords, according to the World Food Programme, food prices fluctuate. There has been a steady increase in prices since October, but there is no evidence that this is due to the onset of winter. We are providing £500 million of humanitarian support for the Syrian crisis—£276 million for those in Syria and £224 million to support refugees and host communities in the region, including £60 million to help with the onset of winter.
Baroness Boothroyd
I appreciate the Minister’s reply, but are the Government aware that the International Rescue Committee, led by David Miliband, has found severe shortages of food and basic medical items in eight regions of Syria, and a complete lack of blankets and warm clothing for refugees as winter sets in? Is the Minister aware that the Miliband report says:
“Syria is truly on the road to hell”,
and the world’s leaders must,
“pull out the stops and do something about it”,
at least to staunch the dying by ensuring greater access to life-saving assistance? If the Paris conference next month fails to restore peace, will the Government press their partners on the UN Security Council to stiffen their declared support for humanitarian access to the war zones by passing a resolution that ensures the needs of humanity are a priority instead of pleading there is no easy option as a reason for inaction?
Baroness Northover
We agree with the position that the noble Baroness has just outlined. It is an absolutely dire situation. There is a catastrophe in Syria and also, in terms of the effects, outside. As the noble Baroness knows, getting access is extremely difficult. We have been pressing extremely hard on this issue as well as making a financial contribution. She will be aware that the UNSC made a presidential statement on access on 2 October. If implemented, that would deliver a huge amount, but putting it into effect is the difficulty that she rightly identifies. We will continue to work extremely hard to try to achieve that.
Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)
My Lords, as we are to have a debate in January, I stress the point that now is the time for all sides fully to implement the presidential statement on humanitarian access. We cannot wait. Can the Minister update the House on the funding of the Save the Children and Oxfam aid programmes for Syria?
Baroness Northover
I cannot give the noble Lord specific answers on Save the Children and Oxfam, but he will know that both of those organisations are major recipients of aid. In answering a previous Question I was asked about Hand in Hand. It is receiving aid from DfID via Save the Children. I can provide detailed answers on that in due course. We are working with a number of international organisations to try to get aid into every part of Syria. As I emphasised before, access is exceptionally difficult.
Lord Wright of Richmond (CB)
My Lords, the Minister is, I am sure, aware that I asked a Question on 2 December calling for resumed contact with the Government of Syria. I received a rather guarded reply from her colleague. Can the Minister update us on where we stand on direct consular and diplomatic contact in Damascus?
Baroness Northover
I am aware that the noble Lord thinks that this is extremely important. It is important to engage with everybody in this conflict, both within Syria and in the countries around, and those countries which appear to have an interest in its continuing instability. It is extremely important that the United Kingdom is involved in widespread engagement.
Lord Reid of Cardowan (Lab)
My Lords, given the wise decision not to intervene militarily in Syria, will the Minister accept that there is therefore an even stronger obligation on us to attend to the desperate needs of these refugees? If we are not dealing directly with Assad or the Syrian regime, and in view of the importance of Iran in the region and the tentative but significant steps that have been taken on engagement with Iran on other issues, can the Minister tell the House to what extent we have engaged with the Iranian regime as regards what should be, objectively and neutrally, the priority for all of us, which is dealing with the humanitarian refugee crisis?
Baroness Northover
It is in nobody’s interest to have instability increasing in this region, which is exactly what is happening at the moment. That is why it was incredibly good news when relations were improved with Iran. As I did before, I pay tribute to our colleague, the noble Baroness, Lady Ashton, for the work she did on that. Iran is indeed an interested party in the area.
Lord Alderdice (LD)
My Lords, on behalf of the United Nations, the noble Baroness, Lady Amos, made an appeal for direct access for humanitarian need. The Foreign Minister of Syria publically stated a few days ago that the Government of Syria would now facilitate this. Can my noble friend indicate whether the statement by the Foreign Minister of Syria is evidenced in actual fact or is this yet again a statement from the Syrian Government that has no real strength and basis in fact?
Baroness Northover
DfID is managing to get into all 14 governorates of Syria. However, there are 2.5 million people in hard-to-reach areas and 250,000 in besieged areas, which bears out the point that my noble friend makes. We call on the Syrian Government—we have not had an adequate response as yet—to remove some of the bureaucratic constraints that they have put in place which hinder humanitarian relief operations.
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean (Lab)
My Lords, the Miliband report very specifically pinpointed the issue of the shortage of vaccinations. Can the noble Baroness tell us a little more about what is being done, as the lack of vaccinations endangers public health in general and is particularly dangerous, of course, to young children?
Baroness Northover
The noble Baroness is absolutely right. That is a major concern of ours, but it hinges so much on access. She will be well aware, for example, of the cases of polio in an area where it had been eliminated. As we try to seek the elimination of polio worldwide, to see it going backwards in this region is extremely concerning. It is a problem of access. We are working to try to ensure that all medical supplies, including for the vaccination of children, get through.
Lord Elton (Con)
My Lords, I presume that the most difficult people to reach are those who are being targeted by the various forces active in Syria. Can my noble friend tell us in particular whether aid is able to reach and support the Christian communities in Syria, which are under very great pressure?
Baroness Northover
They are indeed under great pressure and a number of them are in hard-to-reach areas. Those who are blocking humanitarian access come from all sides in this conflict and we urge all parties to the conflict to remove those barriers to humanitarian operations.
The Earl of Sandwich (CB)
My Lords, we have all seen thousands of refugees crossing the Lebanese border. What are this Government doing to assist the Lebanese Government in bringing their shelters for refugees up to international standards? Have we considered sending British troops, who are very well versed—as we knew in Macedonia—in meeting these appalling conditions and building structures that will be durable?
Baroness Northover
We are contributing £89 million to Lebanon, and that will contribute shelter, food, medical consultations, water and sanitation. Lebanon has recently come out of a long, protracted civil war and we are very concerned about its stability. In terms of troops, the noble Lord will be well aware from his work with Christian Aid and other organisations how essential it is to make sure that any apparent military intervention is separated from humanitarian intervention, and I think there would be risks in what he proposes.