Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what steps his Department is taking to help tackle famine in Tigray.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
Across Tigray and other parts of northern Ethiopia, El Nino has caused drought that is affecting 4 million people. According to assessments from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, nearly 1.4 million people in Tigray will need immediate emergency food assistance because of drought. I witnessed firsthand the effects of this during my visit in February 2024. In response, I announced an additional £100 million to fund our Ending Preventable Deaths Programme, which will target three million people across Ethiopia including those who are most at risk in the northern regions. The UK also co-hosted a donor conference in Geneva on 16 April and successfully raised £610 million to meet humanitarian needs in Ethiopia.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many nuclear site events there were at (a) Coulport and (b) Faslane in the last 12 months.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The table below provides the number of Nuclear Site Event Reports (NSERs) at Coulport and Faslane recorded between January 2023 to April 2024. These are shown according to their categorisation using criteria agreed locally in 2015.
Nuclear Site Events- 2023 | Category A | Category B | Category C | Category D | Below Scale |
Coulport | 0 | 0 | 4 | 17 | 6 |
Faslane | 1 | 4 | 12 | 37 | 77 |
Nuclear Site Events- 2024 | Category A | Category B | Category C | Category D | Below Scale |
Coulport | 0 | 0 | 5 | 7 | 0 |
Faslane | 0 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 2 |
In line with Industry Good Practice and in common with other defence and civil nuclear sites, His Majesty’s Naval Base Clyde has a well-established system for raising NSERs.
NSERs are raised to foster a robust safety culture that learns from experience, whether that is equipment failures, human error, procedural failings, documentation shortcoming or near-misses.
The safety significance of all reported events remains low and are below Level 1, the lowest of the seven-point Internal Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES).
None of the events caused harm to the health of any member of staff on the Naval Base or to any member of the public or have resulted in any radiological impact to the environment.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the strength of the Union.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Union is strong. The United Kingdom is one of the world’s most successful political and economic unions. When we work together as one United Kingdom, we are safer, stronger and more prosperous.