Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions he has had with his Afghan counterpart on improving safe access to education for girls in that country.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We repeatedly condemn the Taliban's draconian restrictions on women and girls' rights, both bilaterally and internationally. Ministers do not engage with the Taliban. The UK Mission to Afghanistan in Doha continues to press Taliban acting ministers and Afghan officials on their grotesque human rights abuses, including the recent ban on female medical education. UK officials most recently visited Kabul in January 2025 to raise human rights issues with senior members of the Taliban, including their policies which limit women and girls' access to education. While in New York in January I publicly demonstrated my support for Afghan women and girls at the UN, ahead of the International Day of Education on 24 January.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
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 ensure the Official Development Assistance budget is spent overseas.
Answered by Catherine West - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Home Secretary is committed to ensuring asylum costs fall and has already acted. This includes taking measures to reduce the asylum backlog and end the use of expensive hotel accommodation.
As the Prime Minister said in the House, as we clear the asylum backlog there are efficiencies that will be made that will mean more of that money is spent overseas.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, when he plans to bring forward legislative proposals to ratify the Global Oceans Treaty.
Answered by Anneliese Dodds - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government is completely committed to ratification of the Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement, also known as the Global Oceans Treaty or the High Seas Treaty), which is in line with our determination to reinvigorate the UK's wider international leadership on climate and nature. Work is in hand on the measures needed to implement the detailed and complex provisions of the Agreement before the UK can ratify.