Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the role of the British Council in providing foreign exchange opportunities for UK students.
Answered by Nigel Adams
The British Council is the UK's international organisation for cultural and educational opportunities, and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office recognises the importance of its work in providing a variety of foreign exchange programmes for UK students to widen their career prospects. The Council delivers or part-funds eight schemes for UK students to study or work abroad. For example, over 2,000 students participate annually in the Language Assistants programme, which supports UK students and recent graduates in taking up a placement in a school to assist in English language teaching. Between now and 2025, the British Council is aiming to provide international mobility opportunities to over 125,000 UK students and researchers.
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he will take to advance proposals to create an Antarctic Ocean Sanctuary in the Weddell Sea, following the failure to reach an agreement on such proposals at the meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources in autumn 2018.
Answered by Alan Duncan
The UK remains engaged with a range of developments to help secure early adoption of a Marine Protected Area (MPA) in the Weddell Sea. British scientists are participating in scientific expeditions to the Weddell Sea during this Antarctic season, and in a series of international scientific workshops and meetings, to further develop the scientific case for the MPA proposal. The UK is also continuing to engage with counterparts from other Member States in the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources to find a way to move forward on this, and other outstanding, MPA proposals.
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure emergency aid for civilians in Yemen is allowed through the Saudi-led blockade.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The ongoing conflict makes humanitarian access and delivery of aid into and within Yemen extremely difficult. We urge all parties to the conflict to take all reasonable steps to allow and facilitate rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access, as called for in the two UN Security Council Presidential Statements that the UK sponsored and coordinated in June 2017 and March 2018. This has been a constant theme of our engagement with the Saudi authorities. The UK played a leading role in persuading the Saudi-led Coalition to ease access restrictions on Hodeidah and Saleef ports, imposed after a Houthi ballistic missile was launched at Riyadh on 4 November. During the recent visit to London of Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman, the UK and Saudi Arabia reaffirmed their commitment to work together to strengthen the inspection mechanism of the UN's Verification and Inspection Mechanism (UNVIM) to ensure that all Yemeni ports can remain fully open to commercial and humanitarian supplies. The UK is providing £1.3 million this financial year to UNVIM, and has deployed UK maritime experts to Djibouti to boost the inspections process. This is helping to increase the proportion of ships physically inspected almost ten-fold (from 8 per cent to 77 per cent).
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations his Department has made to the Indian government on the Seaman Guard Ohio since the Indian court ruling relating to that matter in January 2016.
Answered by Lord Swire
We continue to follow this case closely, raising it at ministerial and official level at every opportunity, as we have done since November 2013. Following the court ruling on 11 January 2016 Ministers have raised the case with Foreign Secretary Jaishankar, the Minister of State for External Affairs, Mr VK Singh and the Indian High Commissioner Mr Navtej Singh.
Whilst we cannot interfere in any foreign legal process, we shall continue to use every opportunity to raise the case at all levels, calling for any legal proceedings to move forward quickly.
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the strength of diplomatic and economic relations between India and the UK.
Answered by Lord Hammond of Runnymede
As, respectively, the world’s oldest and largest democracies, the United Kingdom and India have a strong friendship, which Prime Minister Modi’s visit has enhanced. We continue to work together to strengthen our defence and security partnership and expand trade and investment.