Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, when Chevening programme students will receive confirmation of eligibility on the Afghan citizens resettlement scheme.
Answered by Amanda Milling - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps she is taking support people from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds who are fleeing to the UK from Ukraine.
Answered by James Cleverly - Home Secretary
We are aware of credible reports of discrimination against people of African, Asian and other minority ethnic backgrounds, amongst those seeking to leave Ukraine. The UK is committed to the principle of non-discrimination on any grounds, including on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or race. Combating violence and discrimination against minorities forms an important part of our wider international human rights work.
We have pledged £395 million of aid to the current crisis, which includes £220 million of humanitarian assistance, and deployed UK humanitarian experts to support Ukraine's neighbours, who are receiving and supporting refugees fleeing Ukraine, through providing logistics advice and analysis of needs on the ground.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the Written Statement of 23 February 2021, State Immunity Act 1978: Remedial Order, HCWS788, when she plans to lay before Parliament a draft remedial order in response to the Supreme Court judgement in the case of Benkharbouche v Secretary of State for Commonwealth Affairs [2017] UKSC 62.
Answered by Amanda Milling - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The FCDO has been extensively engaged in preparing to respond to the Supreme Court's ruling. Work is not yet complete, but we plan to lay a draft remedial order before Parliament as early as possible in 2022.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
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 help alleviate famine in the Tigray.
Answered by James Duddridge
The UK has to date provided £47.7 million in humanitarian support to respond to the conflict in Tigray for healthcare, sanitation and nutrition.
The humanitarian situation in north east Ethiopia continues to deteriorate. Access to Tigray for aid agencies is negligible owing to bureaucratic impediments to delivery imposed by the government and more than 400,000 people are assessed to be in famine-like conditions. Tigray is the most serious food crisis since famine was declared in Somalia in 2011. Conflict in neighbouring Amhara and Afar regions is now impacting an additional 1.7 million people. The UK's Special Envoy for Famine Prevention and Humanitarian Affairs, Nick Dyer visited Tigray in May and concluded a that region-wide famine in Tigray is likely if conflict intensifies and impediments to the delivery of humanitarian aid continue. Regrettably the operating context has become more fraught and the risks to civilians have increased. The UK reiterates its call for the protection of civilians and unfettered humanitarian access.
The Foreign Secretary raised concerns on the humanitarian situation and the need for a political dialogue to bring a lasting peace to Tigray directly with Prime Minister Abiy on 5 August. I also raised these issues with the Ethiopian Minister of Peace, Muferihat Kamil Ahmed, on 15 July. The UK Ambassador to Ethiopia has also raised our concerns on multiple occasions to the Government. We have consistently pressed these points in bilateral meetings, in multilateral fora such as the UN Security Council, the Human Rights Council and G7 and worked concertedly with international partners to raise our concerns. At the UN Security Council, I set out on 2 July our concerns at the continued lack of progress in delivering humanitarian access to Tigray.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
What steps he is taking in response to the recent assessment of the UK's famine prevention envoy on the situation in Tigray.
Answered by James Duddridge
Our Special Envoy found growing risk of famine, primarily due to the conduct of the conflict. Last week, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification assessment estimated that 353,000 people are facing famine like conditions. The situation is extremely grave.
Last Wednesday I urged the international community to join our call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. This call was echoed in the G7 Summit Communique. Yesterday, I announced the UK will reprioritise £16.7m to the crisis in Tigray. This is on top of the existing £27m in 2020-21 already directed to the response, and an additional £4m allocated to support nutrition and vaccinations in Tigray. This brings UK total funding to support response to the crisis to £47.7m.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the G7 summit being held in Cornwall between 11 and 13 June 2021, whether he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a call to action on girls' education that includes tackling (a) violence against children and (b) all other barriers to education.
Answered by Wendy Morton
2021 is a year of UK leadership on the world stage, including on girls' education. Meeting under the UK Presidency, G7 Foreign and Development Ministers endorsed two new, global, SDG 4 milestone targets on girls' education, which we are calling on the world to help deliver. G7 Foreign and Development Ministers also endorsed a girls' education declaration, which specifically states that the G7 will work in collaboration with developing country partners, multilateral institutions, civil society, girl-led groups, and youth leaders, to remove the obstacles to education that stand in the way of girls. This includes committing to address the social, environmental, and institutional barriers to education for adolescent girls, such as reducing violence, including sexual and gender-based violence in and out of schools, increasing access to comprehensive sexuality education, promoting sexual and reproductive health and rights, and amending restrictive policies or legislation that prevent girls from thriving in school.
The Prime Minister is calling on G7 Leaders to re-endorse both the targets and declaration in the Leaders' Communique, and we have already met with a number of stakeholders to discuss how we can galvanise action towards our two global objectives.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the upcoming G7 summit being held in Cornwall between 11 and 13 June 2021, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that its commitment to increasing the number of girls who have access to 12 years of education will be maintained following reductions in aid spending from 0.7 to 0.5 per cent of GNI.
Answered by Wendy Morton
2021 is a year of UK leadership on the world stage, including on girls' education. In May, G7 Foreign and Development Ministers endorsed two new, global, SDG 4 milestone targets of getting 40 million more girls in school, and 20 million more girls reading by age 10 in the next 5 years. The Prime Minister will also be using the G7 Leaders' Summit to call on G7 Leaders to re-endorse our girls' education targets and declaration in the Leaders' Communique, and make pledges to support the Global Partnership for Education as we look ahead to the Global Education Summit next month.
As announced by the Foreign Secretary on 21 April, the FCDO will also spend £400 million bilaterally on girls' education this year. This very substantial investment of UK ODA is only one of our tools in achieving our ambitions.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
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 (a) increase awareness of (i) child marriage, (ii) sexual exploitation, (iii) child labour and (iv) other forms of violence and exploitation being significant barriers to girls' education and (b) remove those barriers to education.
Answered by Wendy Morton
Tackling the complex barriers to girls' accessing and staying in education, including child marriage, sexual exploitation, child labour, and gender-based violence, will be key to achieving our global education targets. The Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO) is committed to raising awareness of these issues, and we have ensured that ender equality, including girls' education, is at the centre of the UK's G7 Presidency.
FCDO's £38 million investment since 2015 to tackle child marriage has contributed to a 15% reduction in the global prevalence of child marriage over the last decade. As a leading supporter of the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children, the UK is driving the international movement to the end violence, abuse, and exploitation of children. The UK is proud to be a global leader in efforts to end violence against women and girls. Through our What Works to Prevent Violence Programme, we have pioneered approaches worldwide that have shown reductions of around 50% in violence.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent humanitarian assistance his Department has provided to people affected by the Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict.
Answered by Wendy Morton
In line with the Foreign Secretary's announcement of 30 October, the UK Government has provided the International Committee of the Red Cross with £1 million in support of its humanitarian efforts in the region. This financial support is being used to provide urgent medical supplies, food and shelter to thousands of people affected by the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. We have supported the wider international response by providing funding for additional monitoring and analysis of the humanitarian situation through organisations such as the Humanitarian 2 Humanitarian network. We are keeping the situation under close review, coordinating with local and international partners and will continue to explore opportunities to support partners to deliver an effective international response.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he is taking steps to extend the sanctions list to include senior Chinese Communist Party officials responsible for human rights violations against Tibetan and Uyghur people.
Answered by Nigel Adams
On 6 July, the UK Government established the Global Human Rights sanctions regime. The Government's position remains that it is not appropriate to speculate about who may be designated under the Global Human Rights sanctions regime, as to do so could reduce the impact of the designations. We will keep all evidence and potential listings under close review.