International Development

Keith Vaz Excerpts

Tuesday 12th June 2012 Ministerial Corrections

The following is the answer given by the Under-Secretary of State for International Development, the hon. Member for Eddisbury (Mr O'Brien), to the supplementary question from the right hon. Member for Leicester East (Keith Vaz) about development and priorities as recommended by the Copenhagen Consensus 2012 expert panel.

[Keith Vaz (Leicester East) (Lab)]

How will these excellent priorities help the people of Yemen, almost half of whom are starving?

[Mr O'Brien]

In Yemen, many of the current challenges are humanitarian. Today, we have announced £26 million of humanitarian support and aid to ensure that some of the needs of the population—nearly half of whom, as the right hon. Gentleman rightly observes, are starving—are met. While we are in the humanitarian phase, that is patently the most important response, but we also need to look at the future of governance and resilience in order to improve the lot of the population.

[Official Report, 23 May 2012, Vol. 545, c. 1119.]

Letter of correction from Stephen O’Brien:

An error has been identified in the oral answer given on 23 May 2012 to the right hon. Member for Leicester East (Keith Vaz).

The correct answer should have been: