Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Dominic Raab and Douglas Chapman

Wednesday 29th March 2023 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

I pay tribute to the teachers and staff at both schools, Ravenshall and Hollybank, for the amazing work they do. It is a very difficult and challenging job and it is incredibly important for the life chances of the children affected. My hon. Friend will know that in March we published the SEND and alternative provision improvement plan, with new national standards. That is backed up by increased specialist provision locally, with £2.6 billion going into it. That includes opening 33 new special schools, with a further 49 in the pipeline.

[Douglas Chapman (Dunfermline and West Fife) (SNP)]

Q3. Although the Prime Minister is absent, I hope he later gets the chance to watch the BBC’s dramatisation of the Brink’s-Mat robbery in the 1980s, when the police team assigned to recover the stolen gold got back only half. That sum pales into insignificance compared with the measly 1% recovered from the £1 billion in business grants lost to fraud under the Prime Minister’s watch as Chancellor. The fingerprints show that this massive fraud now lies at No. 10 Downing Street. To quote the Government’s former fraud Minister, Lord Agnew of Oulton, when will this Government “get their acts together” and step up the recovery efforts on behalf of the taxpayer?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

Tackling fraud has become more complex because of the online incidence, but the hon. Gentleman will have noted the massive increase in funding for tackling it in the recent Budget, and we are confident that will give us the resources we need to deal with this often invisible but very damaging crime.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Dominic Raab and Douglas Chapman

Tuesday 24th November 2020 Commons Chamber

[Douglas Chapman (Dunfermline and West Fife) (SNP) [V]]

It was reported last week that the Government are considering reducing our international aid spending from 0.7% to 0.5% of our GNI, despite that being a commitment enshrined in UK law and a firm Conservative manifesto promise. Does the Secretary of State agree that the pandemic landscape has changed things in such a way that this spending is probably needed now more than ever, and the FCDO must build up the resilience of vulnerable and developing countries to tackle current and future pandemics? Is the 0.7% commitment written in stone?

[Dominic Raab]

The hon. Gentleman is right to point to the important work that we do through ODA and on development. The Prime Minister hosted the Gavi summit, working with countries around the world to ensure that there is equitable access to a new vaccine. In relation to the 0.7% commitment and our future ODA spending, I am afraid he will have to wait for the spending review tomorrow.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Dominic Raab and Douglas Chapman

Tuesday 30th June 2020 Commons Chamber

[Douglas Chapman (Dunfermline and West Fife) (SNP) [V]]

A good friend of the all-party group on Yemen is the UN’s Sir Mark Lowcock, who this week described the massive child malnutrition crisis in Yemen as leaving a nation on a precipice. The UK earns 10 times as much from arms sales in the region as we spend on aid to Yemen. Since I was elected in 2015, I have lost count of the number of the Foreign Secretary’s predecessors I have questioned on this issue. Will this British Foreign Secretary be the first to stop the UK being part of the problem? Will he agree with me and ensure that the UK becomes part of the solution? How much will he commit to Yemeni aid today? Foreign Secretary, time is of the essence.

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

Since the last oral questions, I have called on China, with our international partners, to adhere to its international obligations to respect the autonomy and freedom of the people of Hong Kong; we have welcomed President Macron to the UK from France to celebrate and pay tribute on the 80th anniversary of General de Gaulle’s appel; and I met E3 partners in Berlin last week to discuss Iran, the middle east peace process and ongoing negotiations in relation to Brexit.

I say to the hon. Gentleman that on Yemen we absolutely are part of the solution. I visited Saudi Arabia, where I had the chance not just to meet Saudi Ministers and members of the royal family, but to talk to the President of Yemen. We are fully supporting Martin Griffiths’ work as the UN envoy, and this is an exceptional example of where we can bring our aid budget—the significant contributions that we make—to alleviate the humanitarian plight, while also trying to resolve the broader conflict.