International Development

Michael Fabricant Excerpts

Thursday 18th December 2014 Ministerial Corrections

The following is an extract from Questions to the Secretary of State for International Development on 17 December 2014.

[Michael Fabricant]

My right hon. Friend will know that it is hard enough, with some notable exceptions, to get women involved in entrepreneurial activities in this country. What is he doing to encourage women entrepreneurs in developing countries?

[Mr Swayne]

We have provided some 29 million women with access to financial services, and we are supporting the provision of some £26 billion in commercial loans to some 50,000 businesses led by women. Last year at the conference we announced that we would provide support for mentoring for 100 women across north Africa.

[Official Report, 17 December 2014, Vol. 589, c. 1391-2.]

Letter of correction from Mr Swayne:

An error has been identified in the answer I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Lichfield (Michael Fabricant) during Questions to the Secretary of State for International Development.

The correct response should have been:

Oral Answers to Questions

Michael Fabricant Excerpts

Wednesday 17th December 2014 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

The hon. Gentleman is right. Whether in terms of children’s prospects of reaching their full potential or the issues of security and stability that investment in education long-term can address, that is a key part of the post-2015 process. I can assure him that we raise these issues strongly in our work to try to make sure that that framework can deliver for everyone on our planet and will leave no one behind.

[Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) (Con)]

8. What steps her Department is taking to reduce aid dependency by promoting small business start-ups in developing countries; and if she will make a statement.

[The Minister of State, Department for International Development (Mr Desmond Swayne)]

We are providing support for small and medium-sized enterprises and micro-businesses across our areas of responsibility, because they contribute so much to both employment and economic development.

[Michael Fabricant]

My right hon. Friend will know that it is hard enough, with some notable exceptions, to get women involved in entrepreneurial activities in this country. What is he doing to encourage women entrepreneurs in developing countries?[Official Report, 18 December 2014, Vol. 589, c. 5-6MC.]

Oral Answers to Questions

Michael Fabricant Excerpts

Wednesday 18th June 2014 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

I am sure that the Foreign Office will note what the hon. Gentleman has said, and will indeed make representations. As he knows, DFID itself does not have a country programme in Colombia, but I will pass on his comments to the Foreign Office.

[Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) (Con)]

4. If she will make it her policy to provide targeted aid for residents of Cuba.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development (Lynne Featherstone)]

DFID has no plans to establish a bilateral aid programme with Cuba. We provide assistance through our share of contributions to multilateral agencies, and the British embassy provides some funding to promote economic development.

[Michael Fabricant]

Look, I understand why we do not wish to aid Cuba generally—it still has many political prisoners, for instance—but the Minister knows as well as I do that it has a good national health service for its citizens, which, because of a lack of foreign exchange, is unable to buy modern drugs. Surely we can target aid in that area without actually assisting the Cuban Government.

[Lynne Featherstone]

I am afraid that we cannot do as my hon. Friend wishes. We carried out bilateral and multilateral aid reviews to help us to determine where our aid was best focused, and the results did not include Cuba, so we have no plans to give it any bilateral aid.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Prime Minister]

As the hon. Lady knows, I am a fan of directly elected mayors. However, the people of Birmingham had their chance to make that decision and they voted not to have a mayor. I hope that people will see successful mayors in London, Liverpool, Bristol and other parts of the country, and see that there are benefits from that approach. I agree with her that, even if we do not move to a mayoral system, there is more that we can do through city deals, local enterprise partnerships and devolving some of the funding in Whitehall further down towards cities and regions. All that would be to the good. It is worth while and welcome that in its policy review, her party has decided not to tear up local enterprise partnerships, but to extend them. It is good that there is cross-party agreement on how to drive devolution out to our great cities around the country.

[Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) (Con)]

Q13. On behalf of my Burntwood constituents, may I thank the Prime Minister for his swift and effective action in giving what is, in effect, a posthumous honour to my constituent Stephen Sutton? With the economic plan now working well, how can we build on that and on the legacy that Stephen Sutton set for charitable giving?

[The Prime Minister]

Stephen was an absolutely inspiring individual, and his zest for life, even as he was suffering from a very difficult and progressive cancer, was completely extraordinary and very inspiring. He raised a huge amount of money for teenage cancer services, and he raised it from right around the world as well as the UK. I think it is right that our honours system properly rewards people who give to charity, and who give of their time, from the very bottom to the very top. There is probably more we can do to make sure that our honours system really reflects what the British public want, which is to see giving, generosity and compassion rewarded.

Oral Answers to Questions

Michael Fabricant Excerpts

Wednesday 17th July 2013 Commons Chamber

[Lynne Featherstone]

We are using our influence with all other donors to ensure that they step up to the mark in the autumn replenishment, as we intend to do.

[Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) (Con)]

What discussions has my hon. Friend had with the Department of Health to ensure that the right sort of drugs, particularly antibiotics, are prescribed in these development areas?

[Lynne Featherstone]

I personally have not had such discussions, but we nevertheless work closely with the Department of Health and drug companies to ensure that the right drugs get to the right people for the right diseases in the right places.

Oral Answers to Questions

Michael Fabricant Excerpts

Wednesday 13th March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right to raise that issue. About 75% of the refugees are women and children. As I said in my opening answer, we are formally pressing the UN to make sure that the most vulnerable refugees are taken into particular consideration in the construction of plans to support them. We have worked with UNICEF, for example, to provide not just medical assistance but care and counselling for many families, including children who have been through utterly traumatic events.

[Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) (Con)]

Will my right hon. Friend outline what steps we can take to protect refugees trying to get from Syria into Turkey? At present, they face fire from Syrian forces.

[Justine Greening]

As my hon. Friend points out, the journeys that many people make en route to refugee camps are fatal in some cases or near fatal in others. It is extremely worrying that, for example, the Syrian Government continue to refuse humanitarian access from Turkey into Syria. We have to work through political and diplomatic routes, but I can assure him that the Government are playing a leading role in making sure that when refugees get out of that country we support them and that, through impartial, independent humanitarian organisations we are still getting support to people who remain in Syria too.

Oral Answers to Questions

Michael Fabricant Excerpts

Wednesday 30th January 2013 Commons Chamber

[Lynne Featherstone]

I appreciate that desire, but it is not possible to do everything at the G8 that everyone would wish us to do. However, the hon. Gentleman is right. The only solution in the end is a long-term, measured and intelligent political solution.

[Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) (Con)]

6. What estimate she has made of the number of (a) internally displaced people in Syria and (b) Syrians displaced to Turkey and other countries; and if she will make a statement.

[The Minister of State, Department for International Development (Mr Alan Duncan)]

The UN estimates the number of people displaced inside Syria to be about 2 million. There are an additional 700,000 Syrian refugees in need of assistance in neighbouring countries, including 163,000 in Turkey, 228,000 in Lebanon, 222,000 in Jordan, 79,000 in Iraq and more than 14,000 in Egypt.

[Michael Fabricant]

The tragedy in Syria continues. Last night, we heard on the news of 50 young men found in a river near Aleppo, each with a bullet through his head. The UN says that 60,000 people have died so far in the civil war in Syria. What further steps, if any, can we take to resolve this terrible situation?

[Mr Duncan]

My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State is currently at the UN high-level pledging conference for Syria in Kuwait where, I can tell the House, she has just announced a further £50 million for the UN Syria appeals. Together with the £21 million she announced during her visit to Jordan at the weekend, it means that the UK has doubled its funding for this crisis. We are now providing nearly £140 million to deliver emergency assistance to hundreds of thousands of people in Syria and the region.