Oral Answers to Questions

Karen Lumley Excerpts

Wednesday 17th July 2013 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

The overall programme is about £200 million a year, which is split across a range of activities. Part of it is for basic services like health and education, as I have said; part of it is for economic development; and part of it is to address humanitarian conditions and disaster prevention, readiness and resilience. The final part of the programme is for governance programmes, as I said in my initial answer—these support the Electoral Commission and free and fair elections in Bangladesh—and supporting people so they can access the services and the welfare protection that they deserve.

[Karen Lumley (Redditch) (Con)]

2. What steps she is taking to improve the co-ordination of humanitarian support for Syria and the surrounding region.

[The Secretary of State for International Development (Justine Greening)]

Humanitarian actors are working tirelessly throughout the region, dealing with 1.7 million refugees now outside Syria and 4 million internally displaced people still inside Syria. Improving co-ordination and access is absolutely critical, which is why on 3 July I hosted a meeting with donors and key UN agencies in London to map out some steps on how we continue to up our game. Last week I also visited Lebanon.

[Karen Lumley]

Does the Secretary of State agree that an enormous burden is being placed on the countries that neighbour Syria, and that the international community must help them so that they can be fully supported?

[Justine Greening]

Yes, I do. It is projected that Lebanon, a country with a population of 4 million, will have 1 million refugees by the end of the year. If the same proportion of refugees were to arrive in the UK, the figure would be upwards of 15 million. We need to do everything we can to support not only the refugees but the host communities that they are going into.