Asked by: William Cash (Conservative - Stone)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, whether she has agreed with Cabinet colleagues on the circumstances in which international law may supersede domestic legislation.
Answered by Victoria Prentis
The Law Officers’ Convention requires that it is not generally disclosed outside Government whether I have been asked to provide advice or the contents of any such advice. This is a longstanding principle of Cabinet collective agreement which enables the Government of the day to obtain frank and full legal advice in confidence.
Asked by: William Cash (Conservative - Stone)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will place in the House of Commons Library a copy of the full unedited report by Sir Con O'Neill, produced for his Department, entitled Britain's Entry into the European Community, on the negotiations of 1970 to 1972.
Answered by Leo Docherty
The full unredacted report is held at The National Archives under file reference FCO 75/1. This file was transferred to The National Archives under the terms of the Public Records Act and is publicly available to be viewed.
Asked by: William Cash (Conservative - Stone)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the House of Commons Library Research Paper 96/53 of 19 April 1996 on Questions of Procedure for Ministers, if she will request that the National Archives place in the Library a copy of the letter from the then Prime Minister, John Major, to Giles Radice, then Chairman of the Treasury and Civil Service Sub-Committee, of 5 April 1994.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
This letter is already in the Library. It was placed there in 1994 as part of the evidence to the Treasury and Civil Service Select Committee.
Asked by: William Cash (Conservative - Stone)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps his Department is taking in response to the recent allegations of institutional and sexual abuse of young people in the International Planned Parenthood Federation.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
The UK government take issues of fraud and sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment extremely seriously. As set out in DFID funding agreements with all partners, the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) has a clear obligation to report incidents to us.
Over the past year, IPPF’s Director General and IPPF’s Safeguarding Unit have taken significant steps to strengthen their internal systems and to shift culture at the organisation so that people feel safer and more able to report wrongdoing. Action taken by IPPF includes a Safeguarding Taskforce to review and improve overall processes; IPPF’s first employee engagement survey; a set of best-practice safeguarding policies and procedures, including an Independent Complaints Panel; an IPPF SafeReport, which provides a safe space for anyone – including staff, clients, volunteers or member of the public – to raise concerns.
We continue to regularly review IPPF against our high standards for safeguarding, whistleblowing, risk, governance and code of conduct, and we conduct regular assessments of their safeguarding procedures. In addition to recent safeguarding reforms, IPPF is currently conducting a review of its governance system and structures, which IPPF anticipate will take around six months. During this time DFID will monitor IPPF’s governance reforms closely and regularly.
Asked by: William Cash (Conservative - Stone)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment has been made of the effectiveness of his Department’s response to the allegations of sexual misconduct within the International Planned Parenthood Federation.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
The UK government take issues of fraud and sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment extremely seriously. As set out in DFID funding agreements with all partners, the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) has a clear obligation to report incidents to us.
Over the past year, IPPF’s Director General and IPPF’s Safeguarding Unit have taken significant steps to strengthen their internal systems and to shift culture at the organisation so that people feel safer and more able to report wrongdoing. Action taken by IPPF includes a Safeguarding Taskforce to review and improve overall processes; IPPF’s first employee engagement survey; a set of best-practice safeguarding policies and procedures, including an Independent Complaints Panel; an IPPF SafeReport, which provides a safe space for anyone – including staff, clients, volunteers or member of the public – to raise concerns.
We continue to regularly review IPPF against our high standards for safeguarding, whistleblowing, risk, governance and code of conduct, and we conduct regular assessments of their safeguarding procedures. In addition to recent safeguarding reforms, IPPF is currently conducting a review of its governance system and structures, which IPPF anticipate will take around six months. During this time DFID will monitor IPPF’s governance reforms closely and regularly.
Asked by: William Cash (Conservative - Stone)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if his Department will take steps to publish detailed country policy analyses pertaining to the Effectiveness Evaluation of the Prevention of Maternal Deaths from Unwanted Pregnancy Programme.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
My Department published the Evaluation of the Prevention of Maternal Deaths from Unwanted Pregnancy Programme which can be found here, together with the management response. The report summarises the extensive findings; including evaluation background, findings from countries policy analysis and methodological approaches. We do not intend to publish anything further at this stage.
Asked by: William Cash (Conservative - Stone)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether his Department has allocated funding to Marie Stopes International for advocacy on laws on abortion in (a) Malawi, (b) South Sudan and (c) other countries in the last ten years.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
My Department has provided funding to Marie Stopes International through central and bilateral programming in support of comprehensive sexual and reproductive health. This includes a wide range of activities such as health service delivery, outreach, contraceptive supply, policy support and advocacy.
As part of this support, the Department allocated funding to Marie Stopes International and its partners through the Preventing Maternal Deaths from Unwanted Pregnancy Programme, from 2011 to 2018 across 20 countries, including South Sudan (until 2015) and Malawi. Our programmes take an integrated approach and the budget does not include figures specifically for advocacy on laws on abortion.
Asked by: William Cash (Conservative - Stone)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to the Answer of 16 May 2019 to Question 252496, which institutions his Department relied on for estimates of illegal abortions before July 2018.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
The UK government has long used a range of data sources and publications to inform our policy on unsafe abortion, as cited in our published position – notably the World Health Organisation and the Guttmacher Institute, whose expertise in this area is longstanding. This was the case prior to July 2018, when our sector results page was published.
Asked by: William Cash (Conservative - Stone)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what opinion surveys his Department has commissioned on the views of (a) UK taxpayers and (b) people who live in the countries which receive UK aid according to his Department's policy on funding abortions overseas.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
The UK Government’s policy on safe abortion takes an evidence-based, public health approach that aims to reduce death and disability caused by unsafe abortions and does not use opinion surveys.
DFID has a range of bilateral and multi-country programmes supporting a package of women’s reproductive and maternal health information and services and only supports provision of safe abortion services as allowed by local laws. In countries where abortion is highly restricted, we can help make the consequences of unsafe abortion more widely understood. We do this by supporting the voices of local women themselves, as they work for their own rights and choices.
Asked by: William Cash (Conservative - Stone)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much funding his Department has provided to the International Planned Parenthood Federation in the last five years; and how much funding his Department plans to provide to that organisation in the 2019-20 financial year.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
From January 2013 to December 2017 DFID channelled £34.4m of net ODA via the International Planned Parenthood Federation. Comparable figures beyond 2017 are not yet available, estimates for 2018 spending will be available in autumn 2019.