Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department has taken and plans to take to support rescue efforts and humanitarian relief following the flooding on the Nepal-Tibet border.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK is providing up to £5 million to support the most urgent humanitarian needs in Nepal, announced on 27 August by the Prime Minister. The funding will support the Government of Nepal's response efforts through a combination of UN, Red Cross and NGO interventions, alongside local and international responders providing emergency assistance. This includes £750,000 through the Red Cross movement for emergency assistance such as clean water, shelter and medical support; £1 million through Start Fund Nepal to help local organisations deliver lifesaving aid; £3 million through the UN to meet urgent humanitarian needs including shelter, WASH and Protection; and up to £250,000 to deploy UK humanitarian experts to strengthen coordination and the effective delivery of assistance. The UK has also deployed specialist humanitarian experts to Nepal to support and coordinate the response efforts. Following the floods, the Minister for the Indo-Pacific visited Nepal to meet with the Nepalese government, UN and other agencies.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the level of risk of further humanitarian disasters due to flooding around the Nepal-Tibet border 1) in the rest of 2026 and 2) in future years.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) considers there to be a significant risk of further flooding in the high-mountain terrain along the Nepal-China border throughout the remainder of this year's monsoon season. This risk is likely to reduce during the colder, generally drier months of October to December. FCDO assesses that further landslide-related floods are possible during the remainder of this year, including as a result of the formation and sudden failure of barrier lakes. FCDO also assesses that there is a significant risk of flooding in future years. The scale of the humanitarian impact of flooding events would depend on their precise location, the size and density of population in the affected areas, and the effectiveness of monitoring, early warning systems and emergency preparedness.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether she has had discussions with her Nigerian counterpart on the recent kidnapping of schoolchildren and teachers in Oyo State.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Hon Member to the statement I made to the House on 27 November 2025 (HCWS1105), where I addressed the security challenges facing Nigeria due to the activities of terrorist groups and criminal bandits, and set out how the UK is supporting the Nigerian authorities to respond. We continue to work closely with the Government of Nigeria to tackle insecurity, including through our ongoing Security and Defence Partnership.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of the implications for its policies of the human rights situation in Egypt.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Egypt is a human rights priority country for the UK. This informs our policies towards the country, and we do not shy away from raising our human rights concerns with the Government; our strong relationship with Egypt enables us to do so. The Prime Minister raised a human rights concern with President Sisi on 28 February. The National Security Advisor raised a human rights concern with the Foreign Minister Abdelatty on 2 March. The UK participated in the Universal Periodic Review of Egypt at the UN Human Rights Council on 28 January, expressing concern about the arbitrary detention of journalists, activists and human rights defenders, recommending that Human Rights Defender Alaa Abd El-Fattah be released, that all detainees held for exercising their right to freedom of expression are released, that restrictions on news and social media websites be lifted, and that the new Criminal Procedures Code guarantees fair trial standards, and ends the practice of 'rotating' detainees in pre-trial detention.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much his Department has spent on consultancy fees in each year since 2021.
Answered by Catherine West
Per the annual report and accounts published figures, the FCDO has spent the following amounts on consultancy fees since 2021:
The Government is committed to restoring the public finances and delivering value for the taxpayer. As part of this wider mission, the Government has pledged to reduce wasteful spend on non-essential and expensive consultants in order to save over £1.2 billion by 2026.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of potential implications for his policies of the human rights situation in Bangladesh.
Answered by Catherine West
The UK has a long-standing commitment to the promotion and protection of human rights. In July, the UK government expressed concern about the situation in Bangladesh and called for all sides to work together to end the violence. We were clear that a full and independent UN-led investigation is important. The Interim Government in Bangladesh has the UK's full support as it works to restore peace and order including investigating alleged human rights violations. The UK supports the work of the UN as it works to conduct an impartial and independent fact-finding mission to identify human rights violations.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, if he will make it his policy to establish an independent review to guarantee that UK arms export policy does not breach obligations under international law.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell
All export licence applications are already assessed on a case-by-case basis against the Strategic Export Licensing Criteria.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, pursuant to the Answer of 21 March 2024 to Question 19159 on Overseas Investment: Fossil Fuels, if he will publish a full energy portfolio for British International Investment setting out investments in (a) fossil fuels and (b) renewable energy in (i) 2021, (ii) 2022 and (iii) 2023.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell
BII already discloses the percentage of assets in its portfolio that can be considered climate finance and 'carbon-related' (i.e. in the fossil fuel value chain) as part of its annual Task Force on Climate related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) reporting in its Annual Accounts (published on BII's website), in line with TCFD recommendations.
The UK's Development White Paper set the ambition for BII to become the most transparent bilateral Development Finance Institution. Subsequently, BII has published a Transparency Roadmap. For its existing portfolio, the Roadmap commits BII to state whether an investment is fossil fuel or renewable energy power generation. This will be available on its public investment database by the end of the year.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, if he will make an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of the report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 entitled Anatomy of a Genocide, published on 25 March 2024, A/HRC/55/73.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell
Israel has the right to defend itself against Hamas in line with International Humanitarian Law, as we have said from the outset. Our view is that Israel's actions in Gaza cannot be described as a genocide, but we also remain clear that formal determination of genocide should be based upon the final judgment of a competent court.
There must be a reduction in civilian casualties. All parties must act within International Humanitarian Law. We want to see Israel take greater care to limit its operations to military targets and avoid harming civilians and destroying homes.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, pursuant to the Answer of 21 March 2024 to Question 19159 on Overseas Investment: Fossil Fuels, what his planned timescale is for ending support for the overseas fossil fuel sector.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell
The Government's policy on supporting overseas fossil fuel projects is set out at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65840f10fc07f300128d45e9/aligning-uk-international-support-for-the-clean-energy-transition.pdf. This policy has been in force since 31 March 2021.
All investment commitments made by BII since December 2020 meet the conditions set out in BII's Climate Change Strategy and the UK Government's fossil fuel policy. BII are committed to Paris alignment and to reaching net zero at a portfolio level by 2050. A quick sale of existing fossil fuel assets would simply offload the problem to other potentially less responsible investors and may not offer value for money for the British taxpayer.