Asked by: Lord Polak (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of teacher training programmes supported by UK aid in the Palestinian Territories.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
DFID supports teacher training in the Occupied Palestinian Territories through the UK’s ‘Connecting Classrooms through Global Learning Programme’, which is co-funded by DFID and the British Council. The programme focuses on core and transferable skills, and global citizenship.
The content is centrally designed by UK-based experts and delivered on the ground across the world by trainers who are validated and quality assured by the British Council. The British Council undertakes quality assurance visits to ensure the content delivered is appropriate and high quality. The British Council also monitors feedback from participants and has commissioned an independent evaluation of the effectiveness and quality of the training.
Asked by: Lord Polak (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether UK aid is distributed to employees of the Palestinian Ministry of Education’s Curriculum Development Centre.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Our money to support education and health provision in the West Bank goes into a special, dedicated bank account and is only paid to individuals vetted through the Palestinian-European Socio-Economic Management Assistance Mechanism (PEGASE) to ensure they have no connections to any proscribed groups and are still in employment.
Employees of the Palestinian Ministry of Education’s Curriculum Development Centre are included on the PEGASE list, alongside teachers and other public sector education professionals.
Each payment is independently audited to ensure it has been transferred to the declared bank account of the intended recipient. This rigorous process means we are confident no UK aid is being diverted.
Asked by: Lord Polak (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government which textbooks are used by the teachers in the Palestinian Territories that are funded by UK aid.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK does not fund textbooks in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Our education funding to the Palestinian Authority (PA) contributes to the salaries of carefully vetted teachers. Teachers in PA schools teach the Palestinian curriculum. Following allegations of incitement in the PA’s school textbooks, the UK secured agreement from our European partners to lead an independent review of the textbooks which is underway. We expect interim findings in Spring 2020 and full findings later in the year.
Asked by: Lord Polak (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to ensure that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East is rated by the Publish What You Find AID transparency index.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.
Asked by: Lord Polak (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East's mandate; and whether that mandate complies with the Department for International Development's anti-corruption strategies.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.
Asked by: Lord Polak (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the government of the United States about new models and approaches to ensure the long-term viability of the work currently undertaken by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.
Answered by Lord Bates
The UK maintains a regular dialogue with the US on a range of Middle East issues, and has discussed UNRWA’s long term financial viability in light of the US decision to withdraw their funding.
Asked by: Lord Polak (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the reports of a senior World Vision official in Gaza diverting funds to Hamas, what steps they are taking to ensure that UK aid given to projects in Gaza and the West Bank is not misappropriated.
Answered by Baroness Anelay of St Johns
The recent allegations against the senior World Vision official in Gaza are deeply concerning. DFID does not fund World Vision operations in Gaza or the Occupied Palestinian Territories more widely. DFID’s programmes are subject to stringent safeguards.
Asked by: Lord Polak (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what were the total values of UK aid disbursements in the Palestinian territories given for the purpose of (1) legal assistance, and (2) promoting peaceful co-existence, in each of the last five years for which figures are available.
Answered by Baroness Anelay of St Johns
In each of the last five years the UK has provided the following support for legal assistance in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs):
Year | Disbursement |
2012/2013 | £340,000 |
2013/2014 | £2,011,000 |
2014/2015 | £2,550,000 |
2015/2016 | £2,655,000 |
2016/2017 | £1,000,000* |
Total | £8,556,000 |
*as this is the current financial year, this figure is subject to change.
The DFID Secretary of State is currently considering options for co-existence programmes as part of a wider examination of DFID’s programme in the OPTs. The FCO has supported several co-existence projects in Israel.
Asked by: Lord Polak (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will provide the names of the receiver organisations currently reported as "Supplier Name Withheld" for the £5.49 million in disbursements given to the Norwegian Refugee Council for legal assistance in the West Bank and Gaza from September 2013 to May 2016.
Answered by Baroness Anelay of St Johns
All disbursements listed on the Development Tracker for the programme entitled ‘Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC): Legal Assistance to prevent demolitions and displacement in the OPTs’ have been made directly to the NRC, which is the supplier for this programme. Due to a technical issue inherent in the Development Tracker management information system, some supplier names appear as withheld when in fact they should be published. Our central management information team is working on a solution to this problem.