Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Stephen Phillips and Hugh Robertson

Tuesday 21st January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Phillips (Sleaford and North Hykeham) (Con)]

1. What steps his Department is taking to protect minority Christian communities in the middle east.

[The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Hugh Robertson)]

Government Ministers regularly speak out against abuses of the right to freedom of religion or belief. I met minority Christian communities in Egypt in December and in Algeria during my visit there last week precisely to highlight this issue.

[Stephen Phillips]

My right hon. Friend will be aware of the plight of Christians in Iraq, which often goes unreported in the western media. The scale of the exodus of Christians owing to sectarian violence is unprecedented and those who remain often flee to Kurdish-controlled areas to escape violence in Baghdad. However, although they are physically safer in places such as Irbil, they are struggling to survive. What steps is the Department taking to encourage the Iraqi Government to protect Christians in that country and to improve their security?

[Hugh Robertson]

My hon. and learned Friend is absolutely correct. The security situation of Iraq’s Christians, and indeed other minorities, remains precarious. We continually urge the Iraqi Government, through ministerial contacts and by all other means, to protect all communities and to deal appropriately with those who are found responsible for acts of violence and intimidation because of political, ethnic or religious affiliation.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Stephen Phillips and Hugh Robertson

Thursday 28th April 2011 Commons Chamber

[Hugh Robertson]

The first point about that is the obvious political one. It is pointless to pretend that cuts have been made because the coalition Government are in power and would not have been made had the Labour party been in power. There would have been cuts whoever was in power. We have put in place a series of programmes to ensure that the effect of the cuts is mitigated, including the Places People Play programme and the work that we are doing with the Select Committee on Communities and Local Government on the Localism Bill. That will allow sports clubs to place all sports facilities on which they play on a local community asset register, so that the facilities are offered to them directly before being put on the open market.

[Stephen Phillips (Sleaford and North Hykeham) (Con)]

6. What steps he is taking to ensure scrutiny of expenditure by the BBC.