Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Dominic Raab and Ben Everitt

Tuesday 20th April 2021 Commons Chamber

[Ben Everitt (Milton Keynes North) (Con)]

What steps the Government are taking to help ensure that children in fragile and conflict-affected countries can access education and learning.

[The Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs and First Secretary of State (Dominic Raab)]

Covid-19 has deepened the crisis in access to education and learning that children face, especially girls and especially in conflict. That is why Britain is championing two global targets to get 40 million more girls back into school and 20 million more reading over the next five years.

[Ben Everitt]

One in four school-age children globally—over 500 million children—already lived in a country affected by conflicts or climate-related emergencies before the pandemic. Violence against children in conflict settings is on the rise. More and more children are at risk of recruitment, sexual violence and attacks on their schools and hospitals. Will the Government commit to including those children and addressing the barriers to their learning in a specific target as part of the ambition to ensure 12 years of quality education for every girl?

[Dominic Raab]

My hon. Friend is right to point to this specific problem within the wider challenge of covid and the compound impacts in conflict situations. The support to fragile and conflict-affected states accounts for over 50% of UK aid to education through our country-led programmes. In 2020, we provided over £10 million in new funding to support refugee and displaced children’s education in some of the toughest parts of the world.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Dominic Raab and Ben Everitt

Tuesday 19th January 2021 Commons Chamber

[Dominic Raab]

I gave an update to the House on the situation recently, just a few days ago. We regard the reports of forced labour, the conditions of detention and the forced sterilisation of women as grave violations of human rights, which is why we have introduced new measures to prevent any British businesses from feeding into the supply chains, or any businesses in China from profiting in the UK from this gruesome trade.

[Ben Everitt (Milton Keynes North) (Con)]

  Charities are working harder than ever, both at home and abroad, including, of course, the wonderful World Vision, based in Milton Keynes. Can my hon. Friend the Minister update the House on what support the UK Government are giving to charities that are providing aid to some of the most vulnerable people in the poorest countries in the world? Will my hon. Friend undertake to meet World Vision to discuss their work?

Covid-19

Debate between Dominic Raab and Ben Everitt

Tuesday 17th March 2020 Commons Chamber

[Dominic Raab]

The hon. Gentleman is right to note that different countries are acting in different ways, and as he says, some of that is because they are at different stages of the peak and trough of dealing with coronavirus. Based on my attendance at Cobra meetings, I reassure him that not only are we following the best UK scientific evidence available, but that that in itself taps into the widest possible research base, and the widest range of experts, regarding how to effectively stop the spread of the disease.

[Ben Everitt (Milton Keynes North) (Con)]

Members of the House, and journalists outside it, are perfectly at liberty to ask what lessons we have learned from our European partners, but it is worth reminding the House that the Chief Medical Officer who is leading the response to this crisis is a professor of epidemiology. He is literally the right man in the right job at the right time. The Foreign Secretary updated the House on his conversations with our European partners, but will he also update it on his conversations with other international partners such as the US, and other global institutions?

[Dominic Raab]

My hon. Friend is right to pay tribute to Professor Whitty, and along with Sir Patrick Vallance we have some of the finest expert evidence in the world coming to us. On the broader point, yes, we are talking to our European partners, and UK nationals are in European countries—particularly Spain and France, but also other countries—in large numbers. I reassure my hon. Friend that I am talking to my opposite numbers around the world, from central America to Asia-Pacific and North America, both Canada and the United States, and we will continue to do that.