Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to increase the level of apprenticeship opportunities within his Department.
Answered by Catherine West
We remain committed to supporting the use of apprenticeships across all government departments to break down barriers to opportunity. This includes supporting the Government's commitment to 2,000 digital apprenticeships through its TechTrack scheme by 2030 to improve digital skills and drive improvements and efficiency in public services.
Additionally, a new cross-Government Level 3 apprenticeship programme in Business Administration, The 'Civil Service Career Launch Apprenticeship' (CLA), will see new apprentices kickstart their careers, across various departments, starting from January 2026.
We are also working on aligning our apprenticeship approach with our capability framework. For example, we are exploring new apprenticeship opportunities to scale our approach and build internal capability on Data and AI.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to help increase opportunities for cultural exchange across the Commonwealth.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK works closely with the Commonwealth, its institutions and with our Commonwealth family through our network of High Commissions. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office supports a range of pan-Commonwealth initiatives, including through its annual contribution of over £1 million to the Commonwealth Youth Programme to promote cultural exchange by showcasing and celebrating the achievements of young people across the 56 member countries. The UK's broader financial contribution to the Commonwealth complements strong bilateral partnerships, trade relationships, supports initiatives like Commonwealth Scholarships and promotes cultural exchange through events including the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2026.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if the Government will put the role of Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief on a statutory footing.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK is committed to championing freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) for all around the world. However, we do not see additional value in making the role of envoy statutory. No special envoy roles in the UK are enshrined in legislation and legislation is not required in order to create, or make more effective, the role of special envoys. David Smith MP was appointed as the UK Special Envoy for FoRB in December 2024.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps she is taking to help promote media freedom globally.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The UK is committed to defending media freedom and continues to raise it on the global stage. Working with the Media Freedom Coalition we have issued statements condemning attacks on media freedom in Myanmar, Hong Kong and most recently in Ukraine by Russia as well as the situation of journalists in Russia itself. We are continuing to support the work of the Coalition by funding a Secretariat for two years. We are providing support to journalists in Ukraine by extending our existing three-year, £9 million project to support media freedom in Ukraine with £1 million of urgent support. We have also provided an additional £250,000 to the UNESCO Global Media Defence Fund to support journalists in Ukraine.
More widely our £3 million commitment over 5 years to support the Global Media Defence Fund has supported over 3000 journalists, 170 lawyers and 65 civil society organisations worldwide through legal assistance and other support. The UK has also provided over £500 million in ODA to support the media and the free flow of information in the past 5 years. We used our G7 Presidency to secure strong commitments, including support to the Global Media Defence Fund, improve the effectiveness of our diplomatic networks in protecting journalists, and to address the financial crisis facing media across the world.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps her Department has taken to increase access to clean water for drinking and sanitation in developing counties, including desalination projects, in the last three years.
Answered by Amanda Milling
The UK has strong track record of supporting people in developing countries with clean water and sanitation. In the five-year period to 2020, we helped over 60 million people to gain access to clean water and/or sanitation, having also reached over 60 million people from 2011 to 2015. This was achieved using a mix of technologies and approaches depending on the location and context. We have also supported WHO and UNICEF to strengthen national service delivery and track progress towards water and sanitation global goal targets.
Desalination processes are utilised in limited instances by FCDO partners including UNICEF, primarily in coastal areas where freshwater is scarce. The capital and operational costs of desalination can be high and care is needed to mitigate the environmental impact of the brine produced by these systems. Nevertheless, in some situations including emergencies, desalination may be less expensive than options such as water trucking from a distant source. Therefore, the UK will continue to consider desalination, alongside alternatives, where water supply is needed.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent progress she has made with her international counterparts on tackling human rights abuses in human rights priority countries.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The UK works to promote human rights across all 31 human rights priority countries, drawing on the range of diplomatic and development levers available to encourage States to meet their international human rights obligations. The forthcoming 2021 FCDO Annual Human Rights and Democracy Report will set out recent engagement and work on human rights across all human rights priority countries. Examples include Myanmar, where we continue to use all available multilateral fora to condemn human rights violations committed by the military regime. Most recently in February we secured a UN Security Council Press Statement which called for an end to the violence and respect for human rights.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to tackle persecution of religious minorities.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The UK is committed to defending freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) for all, and promoting respect between different religious and non-religious communities. Promoting the right to FoRB is one of the UK's longstanding human rights priorities.
Bilaterally, Ministers and officials regularly raise specific cases of concern, and do not shy away from challenging those we believe are not meeting their obligations. We raise our concerns both in public and in private. Multilaterally, we work with UN, G7, and other multilateral fora to promote FoRB. In May 2021, we ensured that FoRB was included in the G7 communiqué for the first time, demonstrating our leadership in this field. This year, our Special Envoy for FoRB, Fiona Bruce MP, will Chair the International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance to bolster joint international action on FoRB.
In addition to our bilateral and multilateral work, we will host an international Ministerial conference on 5-6 July 2022, in London. The UK-hosted International Ministerial Conference on FoRB will drive forward international efforts on this agenda and demonstrate the UK's leading role in supporting freedom and openness. This conference will allow us to use our global influence to promote and protect freedom of religion or belief for all internationally.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to promote trade across the Commonwealth.
Answered by Amanda Milling
We are committed to working with our friends and allies in the Commonwealth to remove unnecessary barriers to free and fair trade. At CHOGM18, Heads of Government adopted the Commonwealth Connectivity Agenda for Trade and Investment with the ambition of enhancing cooperation and boosting intra-Commonwealth trade to $2 trillion by 2030. Programmes such as the UK-funded Commonwealth Trade Facilitation Programme have helped member states implement the World Trade Organization Trade Facilitation Agreement, and our SheTrades programme has supported over 3,500 women-owned businesses in the Commonwealth to participate in international trade and helped generate £32million in sales for Women Owned Businesses.
The UK already has trade deals with 33 Commonwealth members. In addition, a further 15 Commonwealth members who qualify as developing countries benefit from reduced tariffs under the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP). The Government is currently reviewing the GSP, with the aim of making it more generous and simpler for partner countries and businesses to use, and will launch a new Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS) in 2022. The DCTS will be a major opportunity to grow free and fair-trade with our Commonwealth partners, allowing them to diversify and grow their economies.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to encourage international collaboration on nature recovery programmes.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Protecting and restoring nature is a core theme of the UK's COP26 presidency. At the World Leaders Summit, leaders agreed to work together to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030 through the Glasgow Leaders Declaration, which has now been signed by more than 130 countries, covering over 90% of global forest cover. During the COP fortnight, we will also be highlighting the Forest, Agriculture and Commodity Trade Dialogue to promote sustainable development and trade while protecting forests and other critical ecosystems; the Sustainable Agriculture campaign; and the 'Call for Ocean Action' towards ocean health and resilience.
These initiatives are part of the Government's wider efforts to put biodiversity on a path to recovery. Last year, we championed the Leaders Pledge for Nature, which aims to galvanise more political commitment and which 93 countries have signed to date. The UK has signed up to the goal to conserve or protect at least 30 per cent of the world's land and at least 30 per cent of the world's ocean by 2030, and to support our ambitions for nature, the Government has committed to invest at least £3 billion of our ODA budget over the period 21/22-25/26.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to strengthen cultural exchange programmes across the Commonwealth.
Answered by Amanda Milling
Cultural exchange, including the delivery of in person and digital programmes across the arts, education and English in over 50 Commonwealth countries is facilitated through our diplomatic missions and the British Council, as the UK's international organisation for cultural relations. In 2020/21, funding of £25.4 million to the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission, further supported educational and cultural exchange in the Commonwealth. In 2022, Her Majesty The Queen's Platinum Jubilee and the Birmingham Commonwealth Games provide valuable opportunities to strengthen cultural relations across our Commonwealth family. Ahead of the Games, the Commonwealth Connections Project will twin 60 schools across the West Midlands with schools in other Commonwealth countries, encouraging these young people to explore shared Commonwealth values; whilst an exciting Commonwealth Games Cultural Programme will boost collaborations between artists in the West Midlands and Commonwealth countries.