Yasmin Qureshi

The ‘Explain or Change’ communications campaign concluded in June last year, and the Race Disparity Unit (RDU) continues to work with other Government departments to address disparities. This includes working with the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC), Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and the Department for Education (DfE). This work includes, for example, considering recommendations from an independent review of the Mental Health Act, acting on the recommendations of the Lammy Review and taking forward recommendations from the Timpson Review into school exclusions. As has been the case under successive administrations, details of internal discussions are not normally disclosed.

The ‘Explain or Change’ communications campaign concluded in June last year, and the Race Disparity Unit (RDU) continues to work with other Government departments to address disparities. This includes working with the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC), Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and the Department for Education (DfE). This work includes, for example, considering recommendations from an independent review of the Mental Health Act, acting on the recommendations of the Lammy Review and taking forward recommendations from the Timpson Review into school exclusions. As has been the case under successive administrations, details of internal discussions are not normally disclosed.

‘Explain or Change’ was a short-term communications campaign that was launched in 2018, on the one year anniversary of the Race Disparity Audit. The campaign concluded in June last year, and the Race Disparity Unit continues to work with other Government Departments, to address disparities highlighted by the Audit. This includes work with the Home Office to improve trust between police forces and the local communities they serve, increasing diversity in the police workforces themselves, and developing a new strategy to act on and prevent hate crime.

The Unit engages local authorities to support their work to use data to identify and act on areas of local challenge. It is working to improve local authority data it holds to give an overview on the experiences and outcomes of different ethnic groups, and to support delivery of the levelling-up agenda.

The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) is developing a fact-based evidence base on the key issues that have been raised around fireworks. This includes looking at data on noise and disturbance, anti-social behaviour, non-compliance, environmental impact, and the impact on humans and animals. This will build a fuller picture of the data around fireworks in order to identify whether further action is appropriate.

The evidence base work includes reviewing existing literature, research and data sources which are already publicly available. The work to develop a full evidence base is an ongoing exercise which is not time limited and we will report in due course.

The Government has announced that in April 2020 the National Living Wage (NLW) will increase by 6.2 per cent to £8.72 for those aged 25 and over. The Government has also announced inflation-beating increases in the National Minimum Wage (NMW) rates for younger workers and apprentices of between 4.6 per cent and 6.5 per cent.

My Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer has pledged that the NLW will increase further, reaching two-thirds of median earnings by 2024, providing economic conditions allow. The Government also plans to expand the reach of the NLW, bringing down the eligibility threshold first to age 23 in 2021 and then to 21 by 2024.

The Government increases the NLW and NMW rates annually with consideration to recommendations made by the independent Low Pay Commission (LPC). The Government will publish the LPC’s 2020 remit, which will include details of the new target for the NLW to reach two-thirds of median earnings by 2024.

As the national broadcaster, the BBC has a vital role to play in supplying information to the public in the weeks and months ahead. The BBC has stated that its priority over the coming period is to do everything it can to serve the nation at this uniquely challenging time.

The BBC and the government have been discussing the national coronavirus situation, and these discussions will continue.

In 2018/19 the BBC received nearly £3.7bn in licence fee income.

The Government plans to make an announcement on commemorative events to mark the 75th anniversaries of VJ and VE Day in due course.

Full fibre coverage has doubled in the past year to 3 million premises or 10% of the country, according to the latest Ofcom figures. The Government is taking numerous steps to make it easier and cheaper for the private sector to deploy more gigabit capable broadband, for example, through the recently introduced Telecommunications Infrastructure (Leasehold Property) Bill. This legislation supports telecoms operators to gain access to blocks of flats where a landlord repeatedly fails to respond to access notices and a resident is seeking a new service.

The precise timescales for the deployment of gigabit broadband in Bolton are primarily a matter for the commercial sector, as we believe that promoting commercial investment and network competition is the best way to deliver gigabit broadband at pace. However, this Government is also committed to subsidising deployment in harder to reach areas of the country with £5 billion of public funding, and are working up this programme at the moment. This intervention will ensure that no part of the country, including Bolton, is left behind in terms of broadband connectivity.

The Department for Education’s estimates of spending on Official Development Assistance (ODA) primarily relate to the provision of education to child and unaccompanied child asylum seekers in the 12 months after they make an asylum claim in the UK. The Department does not have a separate funding stream for educating asylum seeker children and is not allocated an ODA budget. Instead, to calculate ODA spending we estimate how much of the wider core schools funding for England is allocated due to having these children on schools’ rolls.

The Department’s estimated spending on ODA in each calendar year from 2015 to 2019 is given below:

The level of spending in future years will be dependent on the number of asylum seeker children that arrive in the country.

We are very grateful for all the work 16-19 providers are doing to support students through the COVID-19 outbreak. We are also keenly aware of the pressures being faced by those providers and the financial difficulties that some students have.

Last year we enabled providers to apply for additional Bursary Fund to help them meet the cost of devices and connectivity, and this year we have announced that 16-19 providers can apply for an allocation of devices from our Get Help with Technology scheme.

We continue to keep the Bursary Fund situation under review, including gathering evidence, with a view to considering what more we can do to support students and providers through this difficult time.

We are very grateful for all the work 16-19 providers are doing to support students through the COVID-19 outbreak. We are also keenly aware of the pressures being faced by those providers and the financial difficulties that some students have.

Last year we enabled providers to apply for additional Bursary Fund to help them meet the cost of devices and connectivity, and this year we have announced that 16-19 providers can apply for an allocation of devices from our Get Help with Technology scheme.

We continue to keep the Bursary Fund situation under review, including gathering evidence, with a view to considering what more we can do to support students and providers through this difficult time.

Further education (FE) institutions should continue to provide support for students who are eligible for free meals, whether they are attending or studying remotely due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Institutions should continue to provide support in the most appropriate way based on their local circumstances, and FE providers can use their FE Free Meals allocation flexibly with their discretionary 16-19 Bursary Fund allocation. The Education and Skills Funding Agency expects that a meal, voucher or credit will be provided to eligible students. However, this may not be practical in some situations and institutions are permitted to make cash payments to students in exceptional circumstances.

As was the case over Christmas, vulnerable families will continue to receive meals and other essentials over February half term via councils through the £170 million Covid Winter Grant Scheme launched last year.

The government has worked closely with the higher education sector to ensure existing rules and processes are as flexible as possible, so that international students wanting to study at UK universities remotely and/or in person, where appropriate under the current circumstances, can do so and are appropriately supported. This includes the ability to engage via distance/blended learning for the duration of the 2020/21 academic year, provided students intend to transition to face-to-face learning as soon as circumstances allow.

The government has already worked closely with the Office for Students (OfS) to help clarify that providers can draw upon existing funding to increase hardship funds and support disadvantaged students impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak. Providers can use the funding, worth around £256 million for the 2020/21 academic year, towards student hardship funds, including the purchase of IT equipment, and mental health support, as well as to support providers’ access and participation plans. We are also currently making available up to £20 million of hardship funding to support those that need it most, particularly disadvantaged students.

We have also worked with the OfS to provide Student Space, which has been funded up to £3 million by the OfS. Student Space is a mental health and wellbeing platform that aims to bridge any gaps in support for students - including international - arising from this unprecedented situation and is designed to work alongside existing services.

The UK was one of the first countries to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak by introducing comprehensive immigration flexibility for international students and staff, and the government has implemented several concessions to assist visa holders in the UK who have been impacted by global travel and health restrictions. This has included offering extensions of visas for those whose leave expired and relaxing the rules on visa switching in the UK, as well as confirming that existing international students who have been studying by distance/blended learning will remain eligible to apply for the new Graduate route, provided they are in the UK by 6 April 2021 and meet the other requirements of the route. In December, the government also confirmed that students commencing a one-year Master’s programme in January 2021 will remain eligible for the Graduate route, even if they are studying remotely, provided they enter the UK before 27 September 2021 and complete the final semester of their studies in the UK.

Partner country status under Erasmus+ provides varying levels of access to the programme depending on the region in which a third country is placed. The assignment of partner country regions is a unilateral matter for the European Union and, to date, no announcement has been made on this matter in relation to the United Kingdom.

I refer the hon. Member for Bolton South East to the answer I gave on 20 November 2020 to Question 114782 to my right hon. Friend, the Member for Bexleyheath and Crayford.

The department has been working closely with local authorities to assess the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on children’s services, including any increases in demand, setting up dedicated regional teams that are in frequent contact.

We are monitoring referrals to children’s services via our regional teams and via the Vulnerable Children and Young People survey, which collects data fortnightly from local authorities in England. The latest release is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vulnerable-children-and-young-people-survey.

The most recent data collection (19-21 October) shows that the total number of children looked after was 7% higher than the same time in 2018 and the total number of children on a child protection plan was 1% higher.

Overall, the total number of referrals to children’s social care services was 6% lower than the 3 year average of the same week across 2016 to 2018.

NHS Digital publish data on referrals to mental health services here: https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/data-tools-and-services/data-services/mental-health-data-hub/mental-health-services-monthly-statistics.

Referrals to mental health services since the beginning of the autumn term will be published in due course.

The government has provided £4.6 billion of additional funding to support local authorities in meeting COVID-19 related pressures, including in children’s services.

Following the end of term break, our priority for January will be the welfare of students, staff, and the communities around higher education (HE) providers. We are looking to utilise mass testing to make the return to HE as safe as possible and will provide further guidance in due course, considering future developments and the relevant scientific advice.

To keep transmission of COVID-19 in the UK as low as possible, with regards to students arriving from outside the UK, all international arrivals will be required to complete a passenger locator form on arrival, and passengers travelling from a country not on the exemption list will need to self-isolate in their accommodation for fourteen days. The government will review these measures regularly to ensure they are in line with the latest scientific evidence and remain effective and necessary.

We are working with the HE sector to ensure that students are welcomed to the UK and are supported on arrival by their chosen university. Further guidance on these measures is available here: www.gov.uk/uk-border-control.

Universities UK have published guidance for the sector to help providers support students fully and properly throughout this period. We would encourage them to have regard for this guidance when planning for the arrival of international students. This can be found at: www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/policy-and-analysis/reports/Documents/2020/self-isolation-guidance.pdf.

As part of over £195 million invested to support access to remote education and online social care, we are making over 340,000 additional laptops and tablets available this term to support disadvantaged children in Years 3 to 11 whose face to face education may be disrupted. Since September, over 100,000 of these have already been delivered to schools.

This supplements over 220,000 laptops and tablets, which have already been delivered during the summer term. This represents an injection of over half a million devices by the end of the year.

We have also distributed over 51,000 4G wireless routers, which are provided with free data for the rest of the 2020/21 academic year. Routers can be distributed by the local authorities, academy trusts and schools who own them to any disadvantaged children and young people.

In partnership with mobile network operators, we are providing access to free additional data for the academic year, offering families flexibility to access the resources that they need the most.

Schools can request free mobile data uplifts for families who lack sufficient internet access, via the Get Help with Technology service, when they experience disruption to face to face education or for clinically extremely vulnerable children.

We are committed to levelling up opportunities to make sure everyone has a fair chance to realise their potential and no one is left behind. The pupil premium furthers this objective by helping schools improve the academic attainment and wider outcomes of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Since the pupil premium was introduced in 2011, it has provided more than £18 billion of additional funding for schools and has played an important role in contributing to the narrowing of the disadvantaged attainment gaps at age 11 and 16. Areas with high proportions of students from disadvantaged backgrounds will continue to receive the highest levels of funding, and the gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers has narrowed considerably in both primary and secondary schools since 2011.

Through the national funding formula, we provide further funding targeted at schools with higher numbers of pupils with additional needs, including deprivation, worth £6.3 billion this financial year. On top of that, the pupil premium, worth £2.4 billion this financial year, provides additional support for disadvantaged pupils – those currently or formerly claiming free school meals and currently or formerly looked after – to tackle educational inequality.

Pupil premium allocations for the 2020-21 financial year were published in June, and the first quarterly instalments were paid out in June and July. Announcements on pupil premium funding for the 2021-22 financial year will follow later in the year. Announcements for future years will be made in due course.

I can confirm that a response to the letters dated 10 July and 18 September 2020 regarding concerns from primary school heads about the Government's COVID-19 guidance has been sent to the hon. Member for Bolton South East.

Ministers and officials continue to engage regularly with school leaders and their representatives on a wide range of issues around COVID-19, including discussions in relation to costs faced by schools at this time.

The government has been working closely with the Office for Students (OfS), the regulator of registered higher education (HE) providers in England, so that HE providers can draw upon existing funding to provide hardship funds and to support disadvantaged students affected by the COVID-19 outbreak.

As a result of this flexibility, providers were able to use OfS student premium funding worth around £23 million per month between April to July this year. From August, providers have also been able to use £256 million for the current academic year towards student hardship funds, including for the purchase of IT equipment. We have also invested over £100 million to help provide laptops and devices for disadvantaged children and young people so they can access education and social care services remotely. As part of this, we have provided devices for care leavers, including those who are studying at university.

As I set out in a letter to MPs on 9 October, the government’s expectation is that quality and academic standards must be maintained. The OfS has made it clear that all HE providers must continue to comply with registration conditions relating to quality and standards, which set out requirements to ensure that courses are high-quality, that students are supported and achieve good outcomes, and that standards are protected. They have also set out that HE providers must continue to provide sufficient and appropriate facilities, learning resources and student support services to deliver a high-quality academic experience.

The OfS has published information and guidance for HE providers and students. The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education has also published a series of guides to support HE providers to secure academic standards and to support student achievement during the COVID-19 outbreak.

The OfS are taking very seriously the potential impacts on teaching and learning, and ensuring they have a clear picture of what students are receiving. They published a statement on 9 October about how they are monitoring the quality of online provision given by HE providers.

My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State of Education, has also commissioned Sir Michael Barber, the Chair of the OfS, to lead a review to consider how to enhance the quality of digital teaching and learning and the opportunities that digital education presents for universities in the medium and long term. The review, which is expected to report in spring 2021, will also explore how HE providers can ensure that all students have access to a high-quality digital teaching and learning experience.

We do not publish data on redundant or furloughed apprentices.

We know that almost 600 apprentices since 1 August have either contacted us for advice through our new redundancy support service or have registered for our vacancy sharing service. Over 750 employers have signed up to offer opportunities to redundant apprentices, including Bupa Dental and Taylor Wimpey.

The support service provides advice and guidance to apprentices who have been made redundant, or are at risk of redundancy, on their options and next steps. It also supports apprentices to identify new apprenticeship and employment opportunities with employers looking to recruit. In addition, we are changing the law to enable more apprentices to complete their apprenticeship in the event of redundancy.

COVID-19 has had a significant impact on universities, and we welcome the resilience, innovation and dedication from the sector over these months, as well as its wider contribution to support the fight against the COVID-19 outbreak through offering research and resources. Capacity for COVID-19 testing is the highest it has ever been and we are seeing significant demand. The department continues to work closely with the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC), and with sector representatives, to ensure that any students who display COVID-19 symptoms can have quick and easy access to testing.

We have drawn on the expertise of the Higher Education Taskforce that we set up, and we have been providing robust public health advice and regular updates to the higher education sector to help providers work through challenges of setting up their own testing measures. Our universities are home to world-leading science and innovation, but for universities producing their own tests, they should work in conjunction with their local Health Protection Teams and directors of public health and NHS Test and Trace so we can utilise it for public safety.

Under the Health Protection (Notification) Regulations (2010), it is a legal requirement to report positive cases of COVID-19 to Public Health England. It is a voluntary decision for providers to run testing programmes for their staff and students and we do not expect this to be a service offered by all higher education providers. Higher education providers should ensure they are fully aware of the implications, both clinical and organisational, of introducing testing programmes and of the potential limitations of any tests or test services that they use. In the event that higher education providers in the Bolton South East constituency want to conduct their own testing, departmental officials can be contacted about this at universities.ps@education.gov.uk.

Further education (FE) colleges are independent of the government and responsible for managing their own workforce. The department does not hold data on the number of FE college staff who have been made redundant in 2020.

For information regarding Education and Skills Funding Agency financial management, the latest publication of the college accounts is available at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/esfa-financial-management-college-accounts.

The government is investing in FE, and we have announced a 16-19 funding increase of £400 million for 2020-21, which is the biggest injection of new money into 16-19 education in a single year since 2010. This includes a 4.7% increase in the 16-19 base rate of funding and a further £24 million for FE workforce development.

We appreciate that children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) have faced many challenges during the COVID-19 outbreak and some may find returning to school difficult. Therefore, we have put in place a number of measures to support their return to school.

We have published guidance to support schools with welcoming all pupils back and re-engaging pupils with learning. We are clear that schools should work closely with parents and carers to agree the best approach to support children and young people with SEND. The guidance for the full opening of special education settings is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-for-full-opening-special-schools-and-other-specialist-settings.

The guidance for the full opening of mainstream settings is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools.

In addition, the Whole School SEND consortium have run training sessions and developed resources for teachers supporting pupils with SEND to return to school after the long absence.

We are very aware of the negative impact that the COVID-19 outbreak is likely to have had on children and young people’s mental health and are working to provide additional support in this area. We recently announced extra mental health support for pupils and teachers to respond to the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak. This will include a programme to develop mental health and wellbeing expertise among school staff and a wider Public Health England-led package of support for young people, including online resources designed by health and education experts.

We have also announced a major investment in SEND education, including an additional £730 million into high needs next financial year, coming on top of the additional £780 million in the 2020-21 financial year, which means high needs budgets will have grown by over £1.5 billion, nearly a quarter, to £8 billion in just two years.

Furthermore, we are providing an additional £1 billion catch-up package to schools, which includes a ‘catch-up premium’ worth £650 million to support schools to make up for lost teaching time. This carries additional weighting for specialist settings, recognising the significantly higher per pupil costs they face.

State-funded schools in England have a duty to teach religious education (RE) to all pupils aged 5 to 18. While academies, free schools and most maintained schools designated as having a religious character may design and follow their own curriculum, all other maintained schools must follow their area’s locally agreed syllabus for RE.

A locally agreed syllabus sets out what pupils should be taught and may include the expected standards of pupils’ performance at different stages. Legislation requires that every agreed syllabus must reflect ‘that the religious traditions of Great Britain are in the main Christian, while taking account of the teaching and practices of the other principal religions represented in Great Britain’.

Neither legislation nor academies’ funding agreements prescribe how much time should be devoted to RE or how it should be provided. However, we would expect an academy to have a plan or scheme of work which demonstrates how provision across the year groups is structured to ensure that all pupils receive RE which matches the legal requirement for an agreed syllabus as set out above.

Although not mandatory for all schools, teaching an accredited religious studies qualification at key stage 4 may be required by a locally agreed syllabus; and many schools teach the religious studies GCSE. The Department has set out the educational outcomes and content coverage required for GCSE specifications in this subject, which can be found at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/gcse-religious-studies. Where key stage 4 pupils do not take a religious studies qualification, the requirement to teach religious education still applies.

Department for Education guidance on religious education for maintained schools is at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/religious-education-guidance-in-english-schools-non-statutory-guidance-2010; and for academies and free schools at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/re-and-collective-worship-in-academies-and-free-schools/religious-education-re-and-collective-worship-in-academies-and-free-schools.

All students undertaking a non-salaried initial teacher training (ITT) course can apply for financial support from Student Finance England. The standard student finance offer is available to both undergraduate and postgraduate non-salaried trainee teachers, regardless of whether or not they are also eligible for an ITT bursary.

The student finance offer for these trainee teachers includes a means-tested maintenance loan to support their living costs. Additional grant funding is also available to those who have children, adult dependents or a disability. Finally, all non-salaried trainee teachers can apply for a tuition fee loan, so they do not need to pay fees upfront.

Reduction in energy use in new and existing school buildings to meet the net zero carbon emissions by 2050 target is a priority for the UK Government. Generating sustainable energy, where sites and buildings allow, is supported by Salix loans available to schools.

Research into the environmental, economic and educational merit of photovoltaic solar panels is well founded and the Department welcomes schools developing educational outcomes that support work to mitigate climate change.

This government is acting to drive down flood risk from every angle. In March 2020, we announced a record £5.2 billion investment to build 2,000 new flood defences over the next 6 years. This investment will better protect 336,000 properties from flooding and coastal erosion. The government also announced a £120 million package to repair assets damaged as a result of last winter’s flooding – recognising the importance that maintenance of assets has on ensuring our network of defences are effective in a changing climate.

The government published a long-term Policy Statement in July setting out our ambition to create a nation more resilient to future flood and coastal erosion risk. The Policy Statement outlines five ambitious policies and over 40 supporting actions?which we will take to?accelerate progress to?better protect and better prepare the country against flooding and coastal erosion in the face of more frequent extreme weather as a result of climate change. These actions will help to reduce the likelihood of flooding and coastal erosion and ensure that we are better prepared to reduce impacts when flooding happens.

In July, we announced an additional £170 million to accelerate the building of 22 flood schemes across the country. In addition to our investment in the flood and coastal defences we are also investing £200 million between 2021 and 2027 to support 25 local areas – urban, rural and coastal – to test innovative actions to improve resilience to flooding and coastal erosion.

Following the flooding events in November 2019 and February 2020, the Environment Agency (EA) has carried out approximately 20,000 post-incident inspections. These inspections are now complete and the results have been used to plan projects for the EA’s recovery programme that will deliver asset repairs. The EA are making sure that any flood defences and equipment damaged during last winter’s floods are either fixed or will have robust contingency plans, such as temporary defences, in place by 31 October.

The 2019-20 winter floods impacted communities across the country both in November 2019 and February 2020. The November 2019 flooding mainly impacted South Yorkshire, in particular Doncaster where over 760 households and businesses were severely affected.

Flood Re is a joint government and industry initiative launched in 2016 to improve the availability and affordability of flood insurance for households at high flood risk. In 2019/20 Flood Re provided cover for over 196,000 household policies. More than 300,000 properties have benefitted since the scheme’s launch.

Flood Re is available through more than 85 insurance brands representing 94% of the home insurance market.

Research has found that before the introduction of Flood Re, only 9% of householders who had made prior flood claims could get quotes from two or more insurers, with 0% being able to get quotes from five or more. Since May 2019, 99% of households with prior flood claims can now receive quotes from five or more insurers. Four out of five householders with a prior flood claim saw price reductions of over 50%.

In December 2019, the Government commissioned an independent review into the affordability and availability of insurance in Doncaster. The review, led by Amanda Blanc, will be fully considered by Ministers and published later this year.

Defra’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) programmes deliver primarily on climate and biodiversity objectives but consideration is given to the contribution of all activities to reducing gender inequality, in line with the Gender Equality Act 2014.

Some Defra ODA-funded programmes directly support women and girls, such as the International Climate Finance Blue Forests Initiative in Madagascar and Indonesia, a £10.1 million project to reduce the deforestation of mangrove habitat, create new sustainable livelihoods, support community health and women's empowerment and increase climate resilience in coastal communities. The Darwin Initiative funds hundreds of biodiversity projects worldwide, including the 'Partnering with Business for Restoration of Mt Kenya ecosystem services' project, which has worked with women in community-based organisations in Kenya, supporting them to fill leadership positions where they can voice their concerns and positively contribute to community-led initiatives.

Further examples of Darwin projects that have supported women and girls can be found in a recent Darwin Initiative newsletter: www.darwininitiative.org.uk/assets/uploads/Darwin-Newsletter-March-2020-Gender-Equality-Empowerment-FINAL.pdf.

Allocation of funding to build a flood protection scheme in Prestolee will depend on the outcomes of the Spending Review for funding beyond March 2021. The Environment Agency will work with partners to secure other funding sources in addition to Government funding and local levy support from the Regional Flood and Coastal Committee.

The Environment Agency (EA) has removed sediment from the River Irwell since Storm Eva, assessed the viability of temporary defences and sprayed invasive species on the river bank so that construction of any potential flood wall can be done as efficiently as possible if this proves to be a feasible option. The EA has also supported the creation of a flood group who can share project updates, share real time flood information and flood forecasts, and gather knowledge and experiences to help understand the flood risk and help develop practical options.

Running parallel to this, the EA has been working hard with its partners, including Bolton Council, to understand flood risk in Prestolee and Stoneclough and to develop measures that could be put in place to reduce that risk. The EA has surveyed the River Irwell at this location and completed a Strategic Business Case for a potential flood scheme. The next phase is to identify a preferred option. There is a funding gap to deliver the construction phase of this project and partners will need to step forward to close this before detailed design or construction can commence. The EA is holding a community drop-in session on 11 March 2020 to provide residents with an update and to hear their experiences over the last month.

During the transition period the UK will continue to abide by the current rules of the Common Fisheries Policy, which apply to all UK, EU and other vessels fishing in UK waters. The safety of the UK fleet remains our highest priority and we continue to monitor the presence and activities of vessels in the English Channel, as we do across the rest of our waters. We have already taken measures to strengthen our surveillance capacity and make sure that the appropriate fisheries enforcement capability is in place to patrol our waters and enforce regulations.

In line with the manifesto commitment to introduce tougher sentences for animal cruelty, we remain fully committed to increasing the maximum custodial sentences for animal cruelty offences from six months to five years. This will enable courts to take a firmer approach to cases such as dog fighting, abuse of puppies and kittens, or gross neglect of farm animals. The necessary legislation will be introduced as soon as Parliamentary time permits.

Since the Main Estimates were published in May this year, HMG has had to respond to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated impact on the UK economy. All government departments are considering how their plans need to change in light of this risk.

All government departments are considering how their plans need to change in light of the risk of a recession linked to the impact of COVID-19. DFID is working with the FCO and other ODA spending departments to assess how to manage the 0.7% commitment this year. No decision has been taken, but we are considering the full range of our work.

DFID’s Annual Report and Accounts will be published in July and will set out baseline programme budgets for 2020/21 spend by DFID spending unit. DFID has a good record on transparency and meeting our reporting and publication requirements. We fully intend to maintain these standards.

The UK is committed to spending 0.7% of GNI on development, which is enshrined in law. This means the aid budget increases when the UK economy grows and decreases if the economy shrinks. Given the expected fall in Gross National Income this year, aid spending is under review across all departments. No decision has been taken. We are considering the full range of our work.

Whatever the final outcome of the 2020/21 financing discussions, advancing gender equality and women’s rights will remain a priority for this government.

Advancing gender equality and women’s rights are a core part of this government’s mission, and vital to fulfilling every girl’s right to 12 years of quality education. DFID and FCO already work closely together on gender equality and we will continue to draw on the skills and expertise of all colleagues in the new department to champion gender equality in international development and humanitarian crises. This is the only way we will achieve a fairer, safer and more prosperous world, and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals

The Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy is expected to conclude later in the year, which will define the Government’s ambition for the UK’s role in the world and its outcomes will shape the objectives of the new Department. Both the review and the merger are evidence of the Prime Minister’s commitment to a unified British foreign and development policy that will maximise our influence around the world, including on gender equality and women’s rights.

The Secretary of State for International Development and Foreign Secretary meet regularly to discuss the vision for the new Foreign, Development and Commonwealth Office.

Advancing gender equality and women’s rights are a core part of this government’s mission, and vital to fulfilling every girl’s right to 12 years of quality education. The Government remains steadfast in its commitment to this agenda.

There is a high level of support for the Strategic Vision and DFID, FCO and other HMG teams already work closely together to realise the ambitions of the Strategic Vision. As part of the merger discussions, we will review, refresh and build on all existing strategies, as well as developing new approaches where appropriate. We do not see the core ambitions of the Strategic Vision for Gender Equality changing. The challenges for the advancement of girls’ education, sexual reproductive health and rights, women’s political empowerment, women’s meaningful participation in peace processes, women’s economic empowerment, and ending violence against women and girls, including conflict-related sexual violence, are as acute now, if not more so, as when we published the strategy in 2018.

We are prioritising staff wellbeing and support during the formation of the new department. We have a well-developed offer to help staff manage their wellbeing and resilience during change. This includes learning and development, mental health support, and a dedicated welfare team. Our Trade Unions, local staff associations and employee support networks are also working hard to ensure our colleagues get the support they need.

There will be no compulsory redundancies for DFID employees as a result of the decision to create a new Department. Some roles may change due to business needs and any changes will be handled in compliance with relevant civil service policy and guidance or local labour law for staff appointed in county overseas.

The UK remains committed to the Sustainable Development Goals – and to the underpinning pledge to Leave No One Behind as we strive to achieve them. The SDGs will play an important role in post-COVID-19 recovery, recognising the connection between healthy lives, healthy societies and a healthy environment. As the Prime Minister affirmed on 28 May, we owe it to future generations to build back better, basing our recovery on a fairer, greener and more resilient global economy, and to get our shared goals on track, including the Sustainable Development Goals.

We have commenced discussions with our trade unions (PCS and FDA) and they will be consulted as we design and develop the new Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

The Prime Minister has decided to merge the Department for International Development and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, bringing together the best of what we do in aid and diplomacy. These changes will better align our development with our foreign policy and the broad UK national interest. It will make our development work even more effective and enable us to speak with one voice wherever we are in the world.

We will implement these changes in the most cost effective way possible. While we anticipate there may be cost savings in the long term as a result of using our resources more effectively and efficiently, it is not the primary goal of the merger of these two Departments. This is primarily about bringing together our international efforts so we can maximise the UK’s influence around the world. By aligning our efforts, the merger will maximise our influence and expertise and ensure we are in the best position to confront the challenges that lie ahead.

The Strategic Vision for Gender Equality is DFID’s guiding document on gender equality, but it reflects and responds to the UK Government ambitions on gender equality. DFID, FCO and other HMG teams already work closely together to realise the ambitions of the Strategic Vision. The Prime Minister has been clear that girls’ education is a key priority for this Government.

As part of the merger discussions, we will refresh and build on existing strategies, as well as develop new approaches. We do not see the core ambitions of the Strategic Vision for Gender Equality changing. The challenges of girls’ education, sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR), violence against women and girls (VAWG), women’s political empowerment and women’s economic empowerment are as acute now, if not more so, as when we published the strategy in 2018.

The UK government is committed to advancing and defending comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights and will continue to be a progressive voice on this issue.

Decisions on how UK aid is spent in the future will be for the new Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office to make, informed by the outcomes of the Integrated Review.

The UK’s Gender Equality Act 2014 (an amendment to 2002 International Development Act, IDA), legally requires all overseas development funding to meaningfully consider the impact of how it will contribute to reducing gender inequality.

All ODA spend reported to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is screened against the gender equality policy marker and marked as ‘principal’ or ‘significant.’ This is a measurement of the proportion of aid that supports gender equality and women’s empowerment.

HMG’s spend on bilateral allocable activities targeting gender equality is made publicly available through the OECD statistics portal. For example, in 2018 £4.9 billion of HMG’s total bilateral spend was marked principal or significant (53%.) These are the latest figures available.

In order to ensure that our ODA spend is transparent, we publish details of international development programmes led by DFID, other government departments and partners on DevTracker.

Promoting gender equality and women’s rights are a core part of this government’s mission. We will continue to champion gender equality in international development because that’s the only way we will create a fairer, safer and more prosperous world, and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. The FCO and DFID already work closely together and share objectives on gender equality. The Prime Minister has been clear that girls’ education is a key priority for this government.

The UK International Development Act (Gender Equality) 2014 makes a consideration of gender equality in all UK Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) a legal requirement. The Act puts our commitment to gender equality within ODA spend on a statutory footing and ensures that gender equality remains at the heart of our work.

There was no formal consultation with our trade unions (PCS and FDA) prior to this decision being made. We have now commenced discussions and they will have a key role to play as we develop the new organisation.

The UK is globally recognised for its expertise and transparency in aid spending. The new Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office will continue to benefit from that expert knowledge as it delivers aid programmes to some of the world’s poorest people.

We are committed to improving transparency of aid globally and maintaining our high standards for overseas spending. We will continue to be accountable to parliament and to taxpayers for how we spend UK aid, and to mandate our partners to be transparent.

The UK has provided an initial £11 million to support COVID-19 preparedness and response efforts in the Rohingya camps and surrounding host communities. This has been allocated to existing UN and Non-Governmental Organisation UK partners. It is also maintaining essential humanitarian services in the camps, such as shelter, food, registration and civil documentation, healthcare, water and sanitation, and hygiene.

Part of this funding is focused on ensuring critical gender-based violence and child protection services keep operating for all those who need them. For example, the UK has provided additional funding to UNFPA for gender-based violence (GBV) services, including activities disseminating anti-GBV messaging and anti-GBV role modelling activities with adolescent boys and girls.

The Rohingya Refugee response in Cox’s Bazar district has been reduced to only critical services since 8 April. While women and girls’ safe spaces are not functioning as normal (to prevent the spread of the virus), all protection services including GBV services have continued throughout. DFID officials are collaborating with UN agencies on the provision and continuity of GBV services. UN agencies have worked closely with the Bangladesh government to prepare and respond to COVID-19 in the refugee camps and ensure vital and lifesaving operations are not jeopardised.

The UK has provided an initial £11 million to support COVID-19 preparedness and response efforts in the Rohingya camps and surrounding host communities. This has been allocated to existing UN and Non-Governmental Organisation UK partners. It is also maintaining essential humanitarian services in the camps, such as shelter, food, registration and civil documentation, healthcare, water and sanitation, and hygiene.

Part of this funding is focused on ensuring critical gender-based violence and child protection services keep operating for all those who need them. For example, the UK has provided additional funding to UNFPA for gender-based violence (GBV) services, including activities disseminating anti-GBV messaging and anti-GBV role modelling activities with adolescent boys and girls.

The Rohingya Refugee response in Cox’s Bazar district has been reduced to only critical services since 8 April. While women and girls’ safe spaces are not functioning as normal (to prevent the spread of the virus), all protection services including GBV services have continued throughout. DFID officials are collaborating with UN agencies on the provision and continuity of GBV services. UN agencies have worked closely with the Bangladesh government to prepare and respond to COVID-19 in the refugee camps and ensure vital and lifesaving operations are not jeopardised.

Gender-based violence (GBV) continues to be a constant threat in refugee camps, especially to women and girls. The scale of GBV in the Rohingya camps is too high, though still not fully known. As GBV is generally underreported due to stigma and fear, the recorded cases are likely to represent only a small fraction of the overall number. However, an information management system is ensuring vital data is collected and analysed from recorded cases.

We agree with the International Rescue Committee that the international community need to expand GBV programming to address unmet needs, including prevention activities; and that these needs are likely to be exacerbated by COVID-19. The UK is the second largest donor to the Rohingya response, contributing £256 million to-date, and we play a leadership role in ensuring anti-GBV efforts are prioritised. DFID has continuously supported efforts to reduce GBV in Rohingya and also in host communities. UK aid-supported GBV activities are being implemented across 34 camps, in 35 women friendly spaces/integrated women centres, and have helped more than 12,000 individuals receive GBV case management support since 2017.

The UK has provided £11 million to support COVID-19 preparedness and response efforts in the Rohingya camps and surrounding host communities. Part of this funding is focused on ensuring critical gender-based violence and child protection services keep operating for all those who need them. For example, the UK has provided an additional £400,000 to UNFPA for GBV services, including disseminating anti-GBV messaging and anti-GBV activities with adolescent boys and girls during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gender-based violence (GBV) continues to be a constant threat in refugee camps, especially to women and girls. The scale of GBV in the Rohingya camps is too high, though still not fully known. As GBV is generally underreported due to stigma and fear, the recorded cases are likely to represent only a small fraction of the overall number. However, an information management system is ensuring vital data is collected and analysed from recorded cases.

We agree with the International Rescue Committee that the international community need to expand GBV programming to address unmet needs, including prevention activities; and that these needs are likely to be exacerbated by COVID-19. The UK is the second largest donor to the Rohingya response, contributing £256 million to-date, and we play a leadership role in ensuring anti-GBV efforts are prioritised. DFID has continuously supported efforts to reduce GBV in Rohingya and also in host communities. UK aid-supported GBV activities are being implemented across 34 camps, in 35 women friendly spaces/integrated women centres, and have helped more than 12,000 individuals receive GBV case management support since 2017.

The UK has provided £11 million to support COVID-19 preparedness and response efforts in the Rohingya camps and surrounding host communities. Part of this funding is focused on ensuring critical gender-based violence and child protection services keep operating for all those who need them. For example, the UK has provided an additional £400,000 to UNFPA for GBV services, including disseminating anti-GBV messaging and anti-GBV activities with adolescent boys and girls during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As acknowledged by the NAO, DFID’s Strategic Vision for Gender Equality is ambitious, wide-ranging and well-researched. The review also set out that our partners would value a long-term, high-level plan that includes the key milestones for DFID’s actions on gender equality between now and 2030.

We are continually challenging ourselves on how we can increase our impact and deliver even better value for money for the UK taxpayer. We will therefore take forward this recommendation on this important agenda by consulting on and publishing a high-level plan in early 2021. It is critical that we understand the emerging challenges that COVID-19 poses for women and girls globally, across all areas of our Strategic Vision, and address this in the design of the plan.

The plan will set out measurable milestones that can be tracked. We will also ensure that it is flexible enough to accommodate new priorities, challenges and opportunities at the global and country level.

The UK continues to raise this issue with the Government of Bangladesh and has requested full lifting of the telecommunications restrictions. The Minister for South Asia, Lord Ahmad, has been raising the issue of internet access in the Cox's Bazar Rohingya refugee camps with the Government of Bangladesh, including with the Bangladeshi High Commissioner in London.? The British High Commissioner in Dhaka has raised the issue on multiple occasions, including with the Bangladeshi Prime Minister’s Foreign Affairs Adviser.

The International Rescue Committee’s report clearly highlights that despite the tireless efforts of the Government of Bangladesh and international response to scale up humanitarian assistance, women and girls continue to live with the threat of gender-based violence (GBV). We share the report’s assessment that these risks are likely to be compounded by the spread of COVID-19 and steps taken to mitigate the virus. GBV remains a major concern that requires a multi-pronged approach. This is reflected in the priorities and funding appeal of the UN-led Joint Response Plan 2020, and the complementary COVID-19 response planning.

DFID regularly engages with the Office of the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commission, humanitarian NGO partners and the Site Management and Development sector group to discuss how site management can be improved. This includes supporting decision-making based on community feedback and particularly the views of women and girls. This has included spotting and rectifying problems such as non-functional street lights. DFID has funded the installation of more than 29,500 street lights in the camps and host communities since 2017. Protection focal points are also embedded in the Site Management and Development sector to ensure protection issues such as GBV are taken into account.

Working with the private sector can crowd additional finance to benefit women and girls including through more productive jobs. DFID’s Work and Opportunities for Women is advising British multinational companies to secure better paid and secure work for 400,000 women in global supply chains. Our co-financing of the G20 Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative will help reach 115,000 women entrepreneurs in developing countries and mobilise additional public and private sector resources of $2.6 billion. CDC has co-led a collective commitment by the G7 Development Finance Institutions to mobilise $3 billion of public and private investments advancing gender equality in developing countries.

In response to the Rohingya crisis, in 2018 DFID reviewed and reshaped its programme in Myanmar to better focus on meeting the needs of the poorest, the most malnourished and excluded. This includes doing more in conflict-affected areas and with displaced people and refugees. Across Myanmar over 6 million people benefit from UK aid. DFID Myanmar does not provide any direct financial support to the Government of Myanmar and has introduced an enhanced due diligence regime for the private sector, including asking partners to avoid working with military owned companies. Allocations for all programmes are subject to rigorous due diligence and ongoing monitoring to enhance effectiveness and strategic impact.

In 2019, DFID again conducted a full review of its strategy. This review took stock of the changing conflict dynamics across the country, including the increasing conflict in Rakhine state, and the changing political situation in the country in the run up to the anticipated 2020 election. For DFID Myanmar this has reinforced the need to focus on supporting the most vulnerable including finding more durable solutions for Myanmar’s long-term displaced population and helping to strengthen the longer-term foundations for peace, prosperity, inclusion and democracy. In the last two months DFID Myanmar have again reviewed their portfolio given COVID-19. They have prioritised supporting the health and humanitarian response, whilst addressing the possible secondary impacts on the economy, society and conflict. A cross-Whitehall discussion was convened in April to review DFID Myanmar’s plans for responding to COVID-19.

We have allocated over £10 million to support COVID-19 preparedness efforts in the Rohingya camps and surrounding host communities in Bangladesh. This contribution has been allocated from previously announced funding and includes establishing treatment centres; distributing soap and building more handwashing structures; and producing and rolling out a range of communications tools to share vital information, including by reaching vulnerable older people with advice.

A majority of DFID’s activities on the Thai/Myanmar border are now being focused on COVID-19 preparedness and response. On the Thai/Myanmar border, we have provided an additional funding to support the work of The Border Consortium (TBC) across nine of the refugee camps. On the Myanmar side we planning to provide funding of around funding, also through TBC. The funding will be used to carry out COVID-19 awareness activities and messaging in local languages, set up of hand washing facilities, increasing the value of the food vouchers to help households cope with lockdown training front line health workers and topping up civil society emergency response. This will benefit the refugees in Thailand and IDPs in Myanmar.

DFID is monitoring the spread COVID-19 cases in Myanmar closely and have adapted programmes in response. The primary focus is on the needs of the most vulnerable especially Internally Displaced Peoples and those living in conflict affected areas. The Secretary of State has agreed an additional £10 million in humanitarian funding to reinforce humanitarian support in response to COVID-19. To help prepare the humanitarian response, DFID Myanmar are asking partners to stockpile sufficient food and medicines to ensure needs can be met in the case of future lockdowns and quarantines; rapidly expanding water and sanitation facilities in camps and surrounding villages and treating severely malnourished children. They are also expanding food supplies to support newly vulnerable groups, advocating for access to health services, and supporting social distancing measures, including through aid delivery. DFID are ensuring the protection of the most vulnerable against increased risks of trafficking and violence against women through awareness campaigns.

The UK welcomed the decision of the Government to establish a committee to coordinate the COVID-19 response with the Ethnic Armed Organisations (EAOs). The ultimate success of the committee will need to be judged on the effectiveness of the Committee in enhancing the response to COVID-19 in ethnic areas, including Rakhine State.

On 1 April, Ambassadors in Yangon, including the UK Ambassador, issued a public call for a ceasefire to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid and to protect vulnerable internally displaced people from COVID-19. The UK Ambassador and DFID Country Director have actively engaged with the Myanmar Ministers and officials to raise the issue of conflict, access constraints, protection for aid workers, the internet ban and the potential impact of COVID-19 on the most vulnerable. On 12 May, the UK Ambassador raised the need to ensure that the most vulnerable and hardest to reach in Rakhine were included in the Burmese Government’s “no-one left behind” policy with the Minister for the State Councillor’s Office, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister for Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement.

A specific area of concern is the safety of humanitarian workers. In particular, the UK was extremely concerned by the death of a WHO driver who was shot on 20 April while transporting COVID-19 samples. On 23 April, I sent my condolences to the family of the WHO staff member and raised the need for a ceasefire in Rakhine as well as for aid workers to have access and protection. DFID will continue to work with the UN, International Committee of the Red Cross, INGO’s and civil society partners to ensure humanitarian support is provided to those who are vulnerable and most at risk, including Internally Displaces Peoples across Myanmar.

Given the scale of the UK support to the Rohingya crisis, it is more effective to channel our funding through a limited number of organisations, both UN and NGOs. Our partners work with and consult thousands of Rohingya volunteers, including community organisations, women, and youth-led groups, on the COVID-19 response and in the delivery of critical services and programmes. There are, nevertheless, examples of DFID funding to community organisations such as the BRAC University Centre for Peace, which supports newly emergent Rohingya community organisations in the camps.

The UK Government continues to support the ongoing democratic transition in Myanmar. Having committed £7.1 million between June 2019 to July 2021 to election support. The major focus is on raising public awareness and encouraging participation in the election, with emphasis on marginalised groups and the youth – aware of the fact that there are approximately 5 million people voting for the first time in 2020. The support also aims to support civil society initiatives, including local monitoring of elections.

Around 20% of this assistance is in the form of technical assistance and advice provided by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems to the Union Electoral Commission (UEC) to enable them to effectively change laws and procedures to align with international and regional best practices, and to provide the training that will allow the UEC to work towards more credible, fair, open and inclusive elections. This support is enabling open and constructive dialogues between UEC, civil society and political parties during the critical period prior to the 2020 elections.

We continue to monitor the extremely concerning reports of hundreds of Rohingya still at sea and reports of failure to disembark vessels in distress. All men, women and children on board are potentially in serious peril. We are working with UN partners, including the International Organisation for Migration and UN High Commissioner for Refugees, to provide live-saving action where possible and in particular if they are brought to shore.

The Minister for South Asia, Lord Ahmad, has raised this with the Bangladesh Foreign Minister and with the Bangladesh High Commissioner in London. In addition, the British High Commission in Dhaka have raised this issue with the Government of Bangladesh. Officials from the British Embassy in Bangkok have discussed with the Thai government the importance of the provision of humanitarian assistance to Rohingyas aboard vessels that enter Thai waters, including in the last week. The Foreign Secretary raised our concerns about the situation of the Rohingya community with the former Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah on 11 February. Our High Commission in Kuala Lumpur has also subsequently continued raised our concerns about the Rohingya community with the Malaysian Government before the COVID-19 crisis. We continue to urge the Governments of Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia and other governments in the region to assist boats carrying Rohingya refugees to land. The UK is committed to protecting the Rohingya community, some of the world’s most vulnerable people.

As acknowledged by the National Audit Office, DFID’s ambition on gender equality is high, evidence-based and widely welcomed by experts on the issue.

The development of the Strategic Vision for gender equality was informed by extensive and active consultation, taking place over 12 months. External stakeholders, including academics, civil societies and country offices were a key part of this process. For example, DFID’s Chief Scientific Adviser chaired an expert roundtable, and DFID hosted a Ministerial-led event with BOND and the Gender and Development Network, which was attended by representatives of 60-70 Civil Society Organisations.

Importantly, framing our gender equality ambition as a strategic vision has allowed DFID country offices and partners to work flexibly and adapt their work to local circumstances as informed by local expertise, in line with the Strategic Vision. We’ve had great success with this approach. DFID Sudan’s trailblazing Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) programme helped to reduce social acceptance of FGM in the country by an estimated 18% in two years. It is now being adopted by the African Union to support efforts to end FGM across the continent.

We continue to be in regular and close contact with DFID country offices and civil society. DFID has also engaged directly with key women’s funds and women’s rights organisations. Evidence from these sources is now informing our response to the coronavirus crisis. This includes providing £10 million of UK aid to the United Nations Population Fund and £20 million to the UN Children’s Fund to scale up protection and support services for women and girls.

DFID is proud of its impact on gender equality, but is not complacent. We welcome the scrutiny of the National Audit Office (NAO) and we are considering this recommendation to further strengthen transparency and accountability on this important agenda.

The NAO rightly recognises the Department’s work to promote girls’ education, challenge child marriage, end female genital mutilation and tackle sexual violence around the world.

DFID’s Strategic Vision for Gender Equality provides a single framework to guide all decisions about DFID and cross-government policies, strategies and funding commitments relating to gender equality. Different areas of work have their own plans which are updated regularly as the global and national contexts change. DFID reviews progress across all its gender equality work, spanning all seven areas of the Strategic Vision, every six months and sets out priority actions for the next six months. This assessment of progress is presented to DFID’s Gender Equality Delivery Board, chaired at a Director level within DFID.

This approach has enabled DFID to be flexible and adaptive. It can direct its support to wherever it is needed most at any given time, including critical support to women and girls during the coronavirus crisis. It also allows flexibility to adapt to local circumstances and work with local expertise, in line with the Strategic Vision.

Evidence shows that women and girls’ sexual and reproductive rights (SRHR) are under pressure as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Guttmacher Institute has estimated that a 10% decline in reproductive, maternal, new-born and child health services over the course of a year in low and low-middle income countries could lead to 49 million women with an unmet need for contraceptives and 15 million unintended pregnancies. We are tracking this and other assessments as they emerge, and are in frequent touch with our NGO and UN partners in countries to monitor the constraints and the barriers women, girls and marginalised groups may be facing as a direct or indirect impact of COVID-19.

UK leadership on sexual and reproductive health and rights is needed now more than ever. We will continue to be a progressive voice internationally on this issue, and work with our partners through the crisis so they can continue to provide SRHR services and ensure that every woman and girl can continue to realise her right to choose. For example, ‘WISH’, our regional women’s sexual & reproductive health programme, operates in 27 countries around the world, working with partners Marie Stopes International and the International Planned Parenthood Foundation. WISH is finding innovative ways to keep delivering desperately-needed services and supplies during COVID-19, while also supporting efforts to stop the spread of the disease.

DFID is proud to be a global leader on gender equality. UKaid has helped millions of women access family planning services, enabled 5.6 million girls go to school so they can realise their full potential, and supported the Africa-led movement to end FGM. The Strategic Vision for Gender Equality enables us to take a dynamic approach to maximise our impact in the face of changing global challenges. Emerging evidence from the COVID-19 crisis reinforces just how critical the priorities of the Strategic Vision remain, for example the elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls (VAWG) is reinforced by the worrying increase we are currently seeing in reported cases of VAWG, globally.

DFID is supporting an effective whole-of-system international response to COVID-19. This includes providing £10 million additional funding to the United Nations Population Fund and £20 million to the UN Children’s Fund to scale up protection and support services for women and girls and working with partners to encourage a gender-centred and responsive approach across the international community. This is the latest example of how the UK continues to be a progressive force for women and girls internationally.

DFID programme leads are assessing the impacts of the pandemic on each of our programmes, based on their expert understanding of the delivery context. We have ensured that they have access to advice on how to adapt programmes, including extending end dates and budgets where appropriate, to recognise the challenges that COVID-19 is placing on staff and partners.

I am working with officials to ensure that we balance our support to the COVID-19 response with a need to continue other programmes that are helping deliver the Global Goals and will enable longer-term recovery through rebuilding livelihoods, economies and health systems.

Through Ministers and the British High Commission in Dhaka, we continue to raise the issue of telecommunications restrictions in the Cox’s Bazar refugee camps in Bangladesh with representatives of the Government of Bangladesh.

Restrictions on 3G and 4G communications in the Rohingya camps are severely hindering COVID-19 preparedness. There are currently no reported cases of COVID-19 in the refugee camps in Bangladesh; however, these restrictions limit the ability of agencies to share information with the refugees and with each other; and for the Rohingya to self-organise. Good communications are critical for preparedness, surveillance, response, delivering critical services, and for maintaining stability in the camps.

With no confirmed COVID-19 cases yet in the camps, there has been intense focus on preparedness for responding to an outbreak when it occurs. This includes funding our partners to distribute soap, build more handwashing facilities, and raise awareness about personal hygiene. Temporary isolation and treatment facilities are being rapidly constructed for severe and critical cases. These will have capacity for over 1,000 beds. Community case management will be supported through existing and auxiliary health facilities in the camps. Health teams already working in the camps will be bolstered by international medical surge teams who are on standby to deploy, once flights and access are arranged.

The UK prioritises the protection and safeguarding of women and the elderly in our humanitarian response to the Rohingya crisis. UK support to partners, including BRAC University Centre for Peace and Justice, BBC Media Action and Translators without Borders, provides information for the humanitarian community drawing directly on the views of Rohingya and host communities, including women and the elderly. This recently included a report sharing the concerns of older men and women about COVID-19. The UK also funds HelpAge International to work with humanitarian organisations to build their capacity to support older people and people with disabilities.

There is compelling evidence of a surge in violence against women and girls (VAWG) during the COVID-19 outbreak, which is deeply concerning. We know from our humanitarian work the importance of taking a ‘no regrets’ approach: we should assume VAWG is occurring and take action to prevent and respond to it as a lifesaving measure from the earliest stages of the response.

DFID is working across the UK government and with global partners to prevent violence and ensure women and girls have access to vital services. We have provided £10 million of UK aid to UNFPA and £20 million to UNICEF to scale up protection and support services for women and girls. We have contributed £20 million of UK aid to UNHCR’s COVID-19 response for refugees and internally displaced people. This response includes support for essential VAWG and child protection services. We launched a call for proposals under our Rapid Response Facility, which required all projects to mainstream gender, protection and safeguarding. We are also urgently reorienting existing bilateral programmes to ensure women and girls can continue to access support during the lockdown. In Nepal, for example, the UK has financed 14 Women’s and Children Service Centres and 62 One Stop Crisis Centres.

The UK remains deeply concerned by the situation in Gaza. In 2019/20 DFID will provide £16 million in humanitarian assistance to Gaza, which will help support the health system, including improved trauma care, and contribute to emergency food aid for around 1.2 million vulnerable people.

To help address the underlying causes of the humanitarian situation we are investing to build the capacity of Gaza’s water and energy services and to address barriers to trade. Ultimately, Gaza’s immense challenges can only be resolved with a political solution that delivers peace, stability and the easing of movement and access restrictions.

The Department for Transport has worked with a Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) sub-group to develop the Transport Risk Assessment for COVID Knowledge (TRACK) project. TRACK is an 18-month, £1.7 million UKRI-funded project to understand and model the transmission of COVID-19 on public transport. The Department has also commissioned the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory to do work on the transmission risk for aviation.

Further information can be found in a press release from the University of Leeds from the 21st October entitled "Research to understand COVID-19 spread on public transport”.

The Government supports the use of hydrogen trains on the railway where appropriate to deliver our legally binding target to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions from the UK by 2050.

Network Rail is developing a Traction Decarbonisation Network Strategy which will examine which parts of the network are best suited to use of hydrogen trains, as well as battery and electrification. This will inform Government decisions in 2020.

Our innovation programmes have supported the development of hydrogen technology, such as the ‘Hydroflex’ train, and continue to provide funding opportunities for innovative environmental projects. The Government is also funding work on safety and wider issues that will have to be considered to allow the smooth entry into service on the network of hydrogen trains.

The Government recognises the performance and capacity problems in Manchester and therefore commissioned Richard George and Network Rail to recommend service and infrastructure options. Officials have now received the first recommendations, which they are currently considering and expect more of over the course of the next few months.

To help communities across the country, we have pledged £500m to start reopening lines closed following the Beeching report, reconnecting smaller towns, regenerating local economies and improving accessibility to jobs, homes and education.

Further details will be announced in due course.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is not currently undertaking any specific steps to assess the effect of air pollutants on the health of drive-through workers.

There is a robust regulatory framework in place to protect workers from exposure to hazardous substances as a result of work activities, including airborne contaminants. The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 require employers to prevent or control employee exposure to hazardous substances at work, so far as is reasonably practicable. The Regulations are supported by Workplace Exposure Limits (WELS) for substances hazardous to health including Nitrogen Monoxide, Nitrogen Dioxide, Carbon Monoxide and Sulphur Dioxide, that are also known airborne contaminants.

Tackling occupational lung disease (OLD) as a result of workplace exposure to hazardous substances is one of HSE’s health priorities. HSE works with a broad range of stakeholders including trade associations, employers, trade unions, third sector and professional bodies to reduce the incidence rate of OLD.

The Department is working with the General Dental Council on legislative proposals which will allow it greater flexibility to expand and improve on the registration options open to international applicants, which includes the Overseas Registration Exam. We aim to launch a public consultation on these proposals later this year.

The Department is working with the General Dental Council on legislative proposals which will allow it greater flexibility to expand and improve on the registration options open to international applicants, which includes the Overseas Registration Exam. We aim to launch a public consultation on these proposals later this year.

Contractual arrangements for the first six months of the 2021/22 financial year have been introduced by NHS England and NHS Improvement. The revised unit of dental activity threshold set at 60% is based on data that indicates practices may now have capacity to safely achieve more dental activity. Arrangements will be monitored on a monthly basis and are expected to be in place for six months in order to provide increased stability for dental practices. National Health Service commissioners have the discretion to make exceptions, for instance in cases where a dental practice has been impacted by staff being required to self-isolate.

The Department will work with the British Dental Association and NHS England and NHS Improvement who will lead the next stage of dental contract reform. This will involve designing implementable proposals that address the key challenges facing the delivery of NHS dentistry and will encourage a more preventative approach to dentistry.

Information on any additional funding allocated to children and young people’s mental health services serving Bolton is not held centrally. On 5 March 2021 the Government announced £79 million of additional funding for children and young people’s mental health. This will be used to significantly expand children’s mental health services in England and will allow around 22,500 more children and young people to access community health services and 2,000 more children and young people to access eating disorder services.

The interim NHS People Plan commits to addressing shortages within the dental workforce. Through the Advancing Dental Care Education and Training Review programme, Health Education England is considering how dental and oral health needs can be best met through changes to the workforce. This includes exploring opportunities for flexible training pathways to improve retention. NHS England and NHS Improvement are also working with the profession and the British Dental Association to assess how the whole dental team may be better utilised to enable dentists to free up capacity and increase access.

General practice is open and has been throughout the pandemic, and people should continue to access services by phone, online or in person. The way in which people can access general practice services during COVID-19 has changed. Practices are offering more triage and remote consultations, video and online, to see as many patients as possible while protecting staff and patients from avoidable risk of infection. Practices continue to undertake routine and preventative work including vaccinations and immunisations and screening, as well as supporting their more high-risk patients with ongoing care needs.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have issued guidance on the importance of continuing to offer face to face appointments, utilising remote triage, making use of online and telephone consultations where appropriate, whilst considering the needs of those unable to access or engage with digital services. On 7 January 2021 NHS England and NHS Improvement set out further details on the actions to release capacity in general practice as well as priorities for the next quarter. This includes maintaining routine appointments, supporting the clinically extremely vulnerable and those with ‘long’ COVID-19, and continuing to make progress in the backlog of appointments.

General practice appointment levels are now close to pre-pandemic numbers. In February 2021, an estimated 23.5 million appointments were booked in general practice in England - an average of 1.19 million per working weekday to 1.24 million appointments per working weekday in February 2020. In February 2021, 13 million appointments were face to face, which is 55.3% of all appointments.

The Department is working with the General Dental Council on legislative proposals which will allow it greater flexibility to expand and improve on the registration options open to international applicants. We aim to launch a public consultation on these proposals later this year

We have record numbers of dental students in training. As at November 2020 there were 2,667 dental students - 28.9% more since 2010. In addition, in England, the Government temporarily lifted the cap on dental school places for students who completed A-Levels in 2020 and who had an offer from a university in England to study dentistry, subject to their grades. This ensured a place in 2020 or 2021 for every eligible student and meant that the overall number of domestic training places available for those applying to a dental school for the 2021/22 academic year remains unchanged.

The Government currently has no plans to increase the number of funded dental school places beyond this. However, we are committed to ensuring that the number of places reflect England’s workforce requirements and continues to monitor current arrangements. The provision of dentistry training places in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales is a matter for each devolved administration.

Dentistry has been particularly affected by the risk of COVID-19 transmission due to the number of aerosol generating procedures carried out. This has resulted in the need for an enhanced level of personal protective equipment and reduced throughput to allow for thorough cleaning and resting of rooms between patients, as set out in Public Health England’s Infection Prevention and Control guidance.

The Department is working closely with NHS England and NHS Improvement and the Chief Dental Officer for England to increase levels of service, as fast as is safely possible. We have been closely monitoring what has been possible and on 29 March announced that the threshold for full National Health Service contractual payment would be raised to 60% of normal activity. We continue to explore what more can be done to increase capacity including piloting pre-appointment testing.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have advised that Bolton Clinical Commissioning Group individually assesses the needs of service users with dementia and that they are supported to remain in their own homes for as long as possible. During the pandemic we have enhanced that support by providing evidence based guidance on how best to manage or mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on people living with dementia in care homes and in the community. We have also funded the Alzheimer’s Society and the Race Equality Foundation to provide practical and tailored advice and support.

We do not hold financial data in the format requested prior to 2015/16.

Investment in National Health Service mental health services has been increasing over the years for which data are available. In 2015/16, expenditure on mental health including learning disabilities and dementia by clinical commissioning groups and NHS England and NHS Improvement was £11 billion. In 2019/20, this had risen to £13.3 billion. We are continuing to invest in expanding and transforming mental health services through the NHS Long Term Plan, with funding rising by an additional £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24.

The information requested is not collected centrally.

The Government considers the impact of any new restrictions including the potential impact on mental health, against the risk to public health.

The data is not held in the format requested. However, NHS England publishes daily data for vaccinations in England, showing the total first and second doses given to date, by region. NHS England also publish the number of vaccinations in each United Kingdom constituency by age group, updated weekly. The data is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/covid-19-vaccinations/

The information requested is shown in the following table:

All recommendations of the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review are being considered carefully. The Government will provide an update in 2021.

I replied to the hon. Member’s letter on 26 November 2020.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer to Question 89666 of 12 November.

The Government economic support schemes provide support to the most vulnerable, including those employed in sectors that employ disproportionately large numbers of women, people from some ethnic minorities, and the young. The Job Support Scheme and Job Support Scheme Expansion are particularly important to help these groups that are at a higher risk of unemployment.

I have met several times in recent months with the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children and Families (Vicky Ford MP) to discuss how health and education can work together to support children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing as schools reopened.

We remain committed to investing at least £2.3 billion of extra funding a year into all-age mental health services by 2023-24, meaning an additional 345,000 children and young people accessing support through National Health Service-funded services or school- and college-based mental health support teams, if they need them.

The Department for Education’s £8 million Wellbeing for Education Return programme will also provide schools and colleges all over England with the knowledge and access to resources they need to support children and young people, teachers and parents.

The Cancer Recovery Taskforce is overseeing the development of the cancer recovery plan and reviewing progress against objectives including considering any impact of a second wave of COVID-19. The plan will be published shortly. The Taskforce met for the first time in September and will continue to do so on a monthly basis. Membership of the Taskforce is drawn from across the cancer community to coordinate and share expertise and ultimately enable progress towards the successful recovery of cancer services.

NHS England and NHS Improvement’s priorities for recovering cancer services are increasing urgent cancer referrals, reducing the number of patients waiting longer than 62 and 104 days for treatments or diagnostics, and ensuring capacity is in place for patients returning to the system in winter.

The Department does not publish this data in this format.

We recognised there would be a need for additional mental health support for all National Health Service staff and commissioned NHS England and NHS Improvement to develop a comprehensive emotional, psychological and practical support package for all NHS staff.

A support package was launched on 8 April 2020 and includes a helpline and text service for counselling and support, a dedicated bereavement helpline and a range of wellbeing apps. All the support available is free and can be accessed via the following link:

https://people.nhs.uk/help/

The health and wellbeing of NHS staff is of vital importance. ‘We are the NHS: People Plan 2020/21’, published on 30 July, sets out further action that will be taken to support staff health and wellbeing.

The Department of Health and Social Care is tackling our most pressing global health challenges through our Official Development Assistance (ODA) funded programmes: Global Health Research, Global Health Security and Tobacco Control. We do not have a specific budget line for women and girls as they are indirect beneficiaries of all our programmes, which are aimed at improving the lives of the poorest people living in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in support of Sustainable Development Goal 3 on Good Health and Wellbeing.

In direct support of health issues affecting women and girls, the Department of Health and Social Care has committed up to £36 million to high-quality research projects which address reproductive, maternal and neonatal health in LMICs, through its Global Health Research Programme.

All UK Aid spend is published by the Department for International Development in the form of Statistics on International Development and is available on GOV.UK. Fuller details of the Department of Health and Social Care’s global health research funding portfolio are available on the NIHR website at the following link:

www.nihr.ac.uk/globalhealth

To address the most pressing global health challenges, the Department is delivering Official Development Assistance programmes which hugely benefit women and girls, both directly and indirectly.

The Government and the National Health Service recognises that the COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to lead to the onset of new mental health difficulties as well as exacerbating existing problems, creating additional demand on services. Mental health services will therefore need to adapt to ensure appropriate and timely service levels to meet people’s needs.

We are working with the NHS and Public Health England, service users, academics and the voluntary sector to gather evidence and assess the potential longer-term mental health impacts of COVID-19 and plan for how to support the public’s mental health and wellbeing throughout the ‘recovery’ phase.

Expanding the mental health workforce is a key priority for the Government. We understand the need to get the right workforce in place to deliver our ambitious commitments to transform mental health services and, most importantly, achieve better outcomes for the people we are here to serve.

Our interim NHS People Plan set out immediate actions we will take to fill vacancies and secure the staff we need for the future – including addressing pensions tax concerns, increasing university clinical placements for all nursing specialities by over 5,000 more and bolstering the workforce through greater international recruitment.

In response to ‘Stepping forward to 2020/21: The mental health workforce plan for England’, the overall mental health workforce has grown by over 6,000 individuals since March 2017.

The Government has a track record of reducing the harm caused by tobacco. The United Kingdom is a world leader and has been rated the best in Europe on tobacco control by independent experts.

The Health Act 2006 and the Smoke-free (Premises and Enforcement) Regulations 2006 made it illegal to smoke in public enclosed or substantially enclosed areas and workplaces. We support development and implementation of smoke-free policies locally in and around public premises.

The Government has a track record of reducing the harm caused by tobacco and the United Kingdom is considered a world leader in tobacco control. We have been rated the best in Europe on tobacco control by independent experts. However, we are not complacent: tobacco legislation is kept under review to ensure it continues to protect the public’s health.

Global health security and responding to humanitarian crises remain two of our priorities for UK aid. The FCDO will spend £906 million on humanitarian preparedness and response, with a £30 million crisis reserve to enable us to respond rapidly to new crises, and £1,305 million on global health. As the Foreign Secretary set out via Written Ministerial Statement to Parliament, one third of FCDO bilateral Official Development Assistance (ODA) will be spent in the Indo-Pacific and South Asia, in support of our deeper engagement in the region.

The portfolio agreed by the Foreign Secretary will focus our investment and expertise on issues where the UK can make the most difference and achieve maximum strategic coherence, impact, and value for money. We will now work through what this means for individual programmes, in line with the priorities we have identified.

We have prioritised our aid to be more strategic and remain a force for good across the world. Following a thorough review, the FCDO's aid budget has been allocated in accordance with UK strategic priorities against a challenging financial climate of COVID. Now the process is complete, we will work with our host countries, international partners and supply chains to deliver the budget changes set out in the Foreign Secretary's Written Ministerial Statement to Parliament.

Official Development Assistance budgets per country for 2021/22, along with final audited spend for 2020/21 will be published in the Annual Report and Accounts in due course.

All posts were asked to consider any impact on women and girls, the most marginalised and vulnerable, people with disabilities and people from other protected groups, when developing advice to Ministers. Standalone country-specific impact assessments were not produced.

A Written Ministerial Statement setting out Official Development Assistance allocations to Government departments was laid on 26 January 2021 (HCWS735).

A further Written Ministerial Statement setting out the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office thematic and regional allocations was laid on 21 April 2021 (HCWS935).

The Foreign Secretary laid a statement before the House of Commons on 21 April 2021, which sets out how he is directing the FCDO's aid portfolio this year. He announced that the FCDO will spend £400 million on girls' education, investing directly in over 25 countries, which will help achieve the global target to get 40 million girls into education. FCDO will now work through what this means for individual programmes, in line with the priorities outlined.

Official Development Assistance (ODA) is reported on a calendar year basis. The FCDO's National Statistics publication, 'Statistics on International Development' next year will contain detailed breakdowns of the UK's ODA spend for 2021, including an activity level dataset. FCDO publishes regular open data through the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI). This operational data covers current live programmes, and will include 2021 spend once business planning is concluded. The raw data can be accessed at the IATI Registry and is shown on the Development Tracker website: https://devtracker.fcdo.gov.uk/

Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO's) ODA spend, including that on gender equality activities and past spend, is made publicly available through the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) statistics portal. All ODA spend is screened against the OECD gender equality policy marker. This is a measurement of the proportion of aid that supports gender equality and women's empowerment. An activity can be marked as 'principal' if gender equality is the main objective of the programme, or as a 'significant' if gender equality is an important and deliberate objective, but not the principal reason for undertaking the programme.

The latest figures available (2019) show that approximately 68 per cent of the former Department for International Development (DFID) and the former Foreign & Commonwealth Office's (FCO) total bilateral spend was marked principal or significant. This equates to £5.2 billion. Figures for previous years are also available on the OECD statistics portal. The 2020 figures have not yet been released. Advancing gender equality and women's and girls' rights are a core part of this Government's mission and we remain steadfast in our commitment to this agenda. The UK's Gender Equality Act 2014, legally requires all overseas development funding to meaningfully consider the impact of how it will contribute to reducing gender inequality.

FCDO's ODA spend, including that on gender equality activities and past spend, is made publicly available through the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) statistics portal. All ODA spend is screened against the OECD gender equality policy marker. This is a measurement of the proportion of aid that supports gender equality and women's empowerment. An activity can be marked as 'principal' if gender equality is the main objective of the programme, or as a 'significant' if gender equality is an important and deliberate objective, but not the principal reason for undertaking the programme.

The latest figures available (2019) show that approximately 68 per cent of the former Department for International Development (DFID) and the former Foreign & Commonwealth Office's (FCO) total bilateral spend was marked principal or significant. This equates to £5.2 billion. Figures for previous years are also available on the OECD statistics portal. The 2020 figures have not yet been released. Advancing gender equality and women's and girls' rights are a core part of this Government's mission and we remain steadfast in our commitment to this agenda. The UK's Gender Equality Act 2014, legally requires all overseas development funding to meaningfully consider the impact of how it will contribute to reducing gender inequality.

All ODA spending is published in the Statistics on International Development (SID). The SID National Statistics report, published on the gov.uk website, provides an overview of all official UK spend on Official Development Assistance (ODA). This includes breakdowns by country and sector. UK ODA figures for 2020 will be published in Autumn 2021, via Statistics on International Development: Final UK Aid Spend 2020.

The SID publishes a country total for each of the Fragile and Conflict-Affected States (FCAS) states, but does not produce a total figure for FCAS states. Historically, DFID has spent over 50% of its ODA in fragile states. The most up to date published data on DFID ODA spend in fragile and conflict affected states is available on the government page for DFID results (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dfid-results-estimates-2015-to-2020). Supporting the development of fragile states will remain a priority for FCDO.

UK aid activities are reported to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and are screened against the gender equality policy marker. This is a measurement of the proportion of aid that supports gender equality and women's empowerment. An activity can be marked as 'principal' if gender equality is the main objective of the programme, or as a 'significant' if gender equality is an important and deliberate objective, but not the principal reason for undertaking the programme.

UK ODA spend on bilateral allocable activities is made publicly available through the OECD statistics portal. Figures for total UK Bilateral ODA spend on Education, not specifically gender equality marked as "Principal" or Significant", by year up to 2019, can be found via the portal. Figures for 2020 are not available as yet.

Advancing gender equality and women's and girls' rights are a core part of this Government's mission and we remain steadfast in our commitment to this agenda. The UK's Gender Equality Act 2014 (an amendment to 2002 International Development Act, IDA), legally requires all overseas development funding to meaningfully consider the impact of how it will contribute to reducing gender inequality.

Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) official aid spend disaggregated by sector code for 2018 and 2019 can be found in the Statistics on International Development: Final UK Aid Spend 2019 pilot table at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/967648/SID_Pilot_Tables.ods

For previous years please refer to the Statistics on International Development: UK Gross Public Expenditure (GPEX) publication at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-on-international-development-uk-gross-public-expenditure-gpex

FCDO spend on family planning for 2020 will be available in Autumn 2021

Since 2015, the UK Government disbursed the following amount of Overseas Development assistance in Pakistan: £374 million in 2015, £463 million in 2016, £402 million in 2017, £331 million in 2018 and £305 million in 2019. 2020 figures are being finalised.

Bilateral Official Development Assistance (ODA) provided to Bangladesh by the Department for International Development and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office - the predecessors of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, which was formed in September 2020 - between 2015 and 2019 are set out in the table below.

ODA figures are published annually, in Statistics for International Development. Figures for 2020 will be published in Autumn 2021.

The UK government is very concerned by the impact on Rohingya refugees of the large fire that took place on 22 March in the Kutapalong refugee camp.

A UN-led joint needs assessment found that 48,300 people were directly affected, with over 10,000 households left without shelter. At least 11 refugees are thought to have died, with over 500 injured. The fire damaged distribution, nutrition and learning centres, water and sanitation infrastructure, and medical facilities. UK Aid provided food, water, sanitation, shelter, and support for medical and camp management teams who coordinated the response. UK Aid has brought in an additional 10,000 tarpaulins for the rehabilitation of shelters.

We remain deeply concerned about the targeting of politicians and activists in Hong Kong, and are following these cases closely. The apparent focus of the Hong Kong and Chinese authorities seems now to be retribution against political opposition and silencing of dissent. We continue to raise our concerns directly with the Hong Kong and Chinese authorities, including this week with senior members of the Hong Kong Government. We urge the Chinese and Hong Kong authorities to respect the rights and freedoms enshrined in the Joint Declaration. In addition, an official from the UK Consulate-General attended the Magistrates Court hearing on 1 March for Carole Ng and others.

The arbitrary detention of thousands of people, as well as credible reports of torture are deeply concerning. It is essential that all those arbitrarily detained, are released. We condemn the politically motivated charges against those who are protesting against the coup.

I [Minister Adams] formally summoned the Myanmar Ambassador twice and stressed that State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and others who had been arbitrarily detained should be released. We have used our Presidencies of both the G7 and the UN Security Council to secure strong statements which re-iterated these points.

The UK is appalled at the actions of the military in killing its own people. The killing of children, many in their own homes, is abhorrent. The violent crackdown on peaceful protestors is completely unacceptable and requires a strong message from the international community. The people's right to a peaceful protest should be respected. We urge the military to exercise utmost restraint and respect human rights and international law.

We continue to shine a spotlight on the actions of the military on the international stage, including through the UN Security Council and the G7. I [Minister Adams] have twice summoned the Myanmar Ambassador to register concern at the coup and the violent actions by the military.

The government remains gravely concerned by the human rights situation in Xinjiang and is committed to continued robust action to hold China to account for its human rights violations in the region. In February, the Foreign Secretary used a personal address at the UN Human Rights Council to reiterate his call for China to allow the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, or another independent expert, urgent and unfettered access to Xinjiang. On 22 March, the Foreign Secretary announced that the UK had imposed, under the UK's Global Human Rights sanctions regime, asset freezes and travel bans against four senior Chinese government officials responsible for the violations that have taken place and persist against the Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang. Alongside those individuals, the UK also designated the Public Security Bureau of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, the organisation responsible for enforcing the repressive security policies across many areas of Xinjiang.

We are deeply concerned by reports of the mistreatment of Uyghur children, including reports of children being forcibly separated from their parents and placed in state run institutions. The Government has taken careful note of Amnesty International's report of 19 March 2021 and will continue to engage with a range of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), and other experts, to inform our understanding of the situation in Xinjiang and guide policy development. We will also continue to take action to hold China to account for its human rights violation in Xinjiang, working closely with international partners. On 22 March, the Foreign Secretary announced that the UK has imposed, under the UK's Global Human Rights sanctions regime, asset freezes and travel bans against four senior Chinese government officials responsible for the violations that have taken place and persist against the Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang. Alongside those individuals, the UK also designated the Public Security Bureau of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, the organisation responsible for enforcing the repressive security policies across many areas of Xinjiang.

We are monitoring political and security developments in Myanmar daily. The UK condemns the coup and the appalling violence which has left over 700 dead. We call for a return to democracy and the release of all those in arbitrary detention, including democratically elected politicians, journalists, civil society and foreign nationals.

The UK remains strongly committed to helping those most in need in Myanmar. We will continue to provide humanitarian support to the Rohingya and other vulnerable and conflict-affected populations. We are in close contact with networks on the ground in Rakhine to monitor risks of atrocities, human rights violations and deterioration in the humanitarian and health situation in camps and villages. We continue to raise the plight of the Rohingya on the international stage, most recently in the UN Security Council Presidential Statement agreed on 10 March.

The UK has also imposed sanctions on two key military linked conglomerates that fund the military's campaign of serious human rights violations, and on nine senior military figures, including the Commander in Chief. We are clear that targeted sanctions send a clear message to the military that we react robustly to serious human rights violations

The UK government is gravely concerned by the impact on Rohingya refugees of the large fire that took place on Monday 22 March in the Kutapalong refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. A number of refugees have lost their lives and others have been injured, although the numbers have yet to be verified. Others have been separated from their families, including children. A large number of shelters have been damaged affecting around 40,000 refugees on current estimates. Services including health facilities, community centres, food distribution points and learning centres have been badly damaged and in some cases completely destroyed. We are closely monitoring the impacts of the fire and are working alongside the UN and our implementing partners to fully understand the scale of the needs and how we can support the refugees' most immediate needs.

FCDO Ministers are currently working with department officials to finalise ODA budget allocations for the next financial year. No final decisions have been made. We are committed to improving transparency of aid globally and maintaining our high standards for overseas spending. We do that through publication of quality and accessible information on our aid programmes, available on Devtracker.

The UK Government is in regular dialogue with the UN, our international Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) partners and with the Government of Bangladesh on the Rohingya response in Bangladesh, including on Bhasan Char. We continue to support the UN position that independent, full and detailed technical and protection assessments are needed to evaluate the safety and sustainability of living on Bhasan Char. We are pleased that these assessments began on 16 March. Through the British High Commission in Dhaka, we regularly engage with the UN Resident Co-ordinator and Heads of UN agencies on Bhasan Char. We also collaborate with other diplomatic missions to deliver joined-up messaging to the Government. We are clear that the refugees need to be safe and should have access to education and healthcare, including Covid-19 vaccinations as these become available.

DFID and now the FCDO have been consistently supportive of the Inter-Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme (MDS) since it was launched at the October 2018 Safeguarding Summit. FCDO's Safeguarding Unit is a member of the MDS Steering Committee.

The September 2020 UK strategy: Safeguarding against sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment within the aid sector stated that we are actively encouraging organisations to sign up to the MDS. FCDO Ministers, including the Secretary of State, publicised the MDS during events in Parliament in November 2020 and January 2021. Senior officials from FCDO's Safeguarding Unit regularly encourage delivery partners, including aid charities, to sign up.

We have not provided any funding to the MDS.

We have not carried out an assessment of the effectiveness of the scheme, but data published in February shows that in the two years since the MDS began, over 7,600 sets of misconduct data have been shared thanks to the scheme, resulting in 75 hires being stopped and so helping keep individuals safe from potential risk of sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment linked to the delivery of aid.

DFID and now the FCDO have been consistently supportive of the Inter-Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme (MDS) since it was launched at the October 2018 Safeguarding Summit. FCDO's Safeguarding Unit is a member of the MDS Steering Committee.

The September 2020 UK strategy: Safeguarding against sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment within the aid sector stated that we are actively encouraging organisations to sign up to the MDS. FCDO Ministers, including the Secretary of State, publicised the MDS during events in Parliament in November 2020 and January 2021. Senior officials from FCDO's Safeguarding Unit regularly encourage delivery partners, including aid charities, to sign up.

We have not provided any funding to the MDS.

We have not carried out an assessment of the effectiveness of the scheme, but data published in February shows that in the two years since the MDS began, over 7,600 sets of misconduct data have been shared thanks to the scheme, resulting in 75 hires being stopped and so helping keep individuals safe from potential risk of sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment linked to the delivery of aid.

DFID and now the FCDO have been consistently supportive of the Inter-Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme (MDS) since it was launched at the October 2018 Safeguarding Summit. FCDO's Safeguarding Unit is a member of the MDS Steering Committee.

The September 2020 UK strategy: Safeguarding against sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment within the aid sector stated that we are actively encouraging organisations to sign up to the MDS. FCDO Ministers, including the Secretary of State, publicised the MDS during events in Parliament in November 2020 and January 2021. Senior officials from FCDO's Safeguarding Unit regularly encourage delivery partners, including aid charities, to sign up.

We have not provided any funding to the MDS.

We have not carried out an assessment of the effectiveness of the scheme, but data published in February shows that in the two years since the MDS began, over 7,600 sets of misconduct data have been shared thanks to the scheme, resulting in 75 hires being stopped and so helping keep individuals safe from potential risk of sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment linked to the delivery of aid.

The safety and security of our implementing partners in Myanmar is of great importance to us. We are in close contact with the NGOs, the UN, Red Cross, and civil society organisations we support and we are ensuring as much flexibility as we can in their use of UK aid to help ensure their ability to continue to operate safely. We are working with partners to understand their specific needs and how the coup is impacting on their activities and staff.

We conducted a review of the UK aid programme in Myanmar following the coup. As part of the review the UK is committed to continuing funding that strengthens the foundations for a deeper and more inclusive democracy, including support for civil society.

Following the coup, we have reviewed our aid programme in Myanmar to ensure that we focus on the most vulnerable people. Following a review of all UK aid programme in Myanmar all work with the government has now been suspended unless there is an exceptional humanitarian reason.

The UK Government remains clear that any returns of Rohingya refugees to Rakhine state must be voluntary, safe, dignified, and in line with UNHCR principles. At present, conditions in Myanmar preclude this possibility. The UK is a leading donor to the Rohingya crisis in Bangladesh, having committed £293.5 million since August 2017. UK aid has been instrumental in improving the lives of the 890,000 refugees and the vulnerable local Bangladeshi communities in Cox's Bazar. Our funding provides lifesaving support including food, healthcare, nutrition, education, clean water and sanitation and targeted support for women and girls. We continue to work closely with the Government of Bangladesh, the UN and other donors to improve conditions for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and the surrounding host communities.

The UK Government shares concerns over the safety of the Rohingya refugees stranded in the Andaman Sea. The British High Commission in Delhi has made representations to the Government of India, and we understand that India has provided humanitarian support to those on board. We continue to engage with governments in the region, UN agencies and other international partners to support the safety and well-being of all Rohingya refugees. The UK is the second largest donor to the Rohingya crisis in Bangladesh, having committed close to £300 million since August 2017. We are also one of the largest donors in Rakhine State, having provided over £25 million for the Rohingya since 2017.

Promoting gender equality and advancing women and girls' rights around the world is a priority for the UK Government. The seismic impact of the pandemic on the UK economy has forced us to take the tough but necessary decision, to temporarily reduce the overall amount we spend on ODA. Despite this, the UK remains committed to advancing gender equality, and we will take full advantage of the opportunities that 2021 will offer. This includes the UK's Presidency of the G7, co-hosting the Global Partnership for Education replenishment, COP26 and co-leadership of the new global Action Coalition on GBV.

The UK is proud to defend comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights, including family planning; these are fundamental to the empowerment and health of girls and women in the global south. For example, between 2019 and 2020 alone, UK aid helped over 25 million women and girls use modern methods of contraception. We are working through the implications of the ODA reductions for individual programmes and activities. No decisions on individual country or sectoral budgets have been made yet.

The Strategic framework for aid announced in November by the Foreign Secretary, sharpens the focus of our aid on seven priorities where UK support can make the most difference including on Covid and global health security; and open societies and conflict, in our overarching pursuit of poverty reduction and achievement of the sustainable development goals. This, alongside the creation of the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, uniting our world class diplomacy and development expertise will ensure we bring together the best of Britain's international effort bear on the world's global challenges.

The UK is proud to defend comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights, including family planning; these are fundamental to the empowerment and health of girls and women in the global south. For example, between 2019 and 2020 alone, UK aid helped over 25 million women and girls use modern methods of contraception.

We are working through the implications of the ODA reductions for individual programmes and activities. No decisions on individual country or sectoral budgets have been made yet.

The UK is proud to defend comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights, including family planning; these are fundamental to the empowerment and health of girls and women in the global south. For example, between 2019 and 2020 alone, UK aid helped over 25 million women and girls use modern methods of contraception.

We are working through the implications of the ODA reductions for individual programmes and activities. No decisions on individual country or sectoral budgets have been made yet.

We welcome the steps that the parties have taken so far to coordinate responses to COVID-19, including the arrival of the first shipment of vaccines from the Palestinian Authority into Gaza on 17 February, with the approval of Israel. We encourage further cooperation and dialogue in this regard.

The UK Ambassador in Tel Aviv raised the issue of vaccines with the Israeli Authorities on 24 February, encouraging the Government of Israel to continue to facilitate the transfer of vaccines to the Palestinian Authority when required. The British Embassy in Tel Aviv and the British Consulate-General in Jerusalem are in regular contact with the Israeli and Palestinian authorities respectively, and will continue to raise timely and appropriate access to COVID-19 vaccines.

CDC has paused all new investment activity in Myanmar and is reviewing the impact of the coup on its existing investments in the country. CDC has no investments in military or state-owned companies in Myanmar, does not directly work with or partner with the government, and has not supported any trade promotion by the government.

In parallel, on 25 February the UK launched a Trade Review. All UK support for trade promotion has been suspended in Myanmar while the UK works with British businesses and civil society to reshape our approach.

Frontiir has helped connect over one million people in Myanmar to the internet at affordable prices, thereby increasing access to information, boosting businesses, supporting education and tackling poverty. Frontiir has at all times adhered to international best practice.

Following the military coup on February 1st, Frontiir, along with all other telco operators and internet service providers, received regulatory orders to shut down the internet for brief periods and also block certain social media platforms, including Twitter and Facebook. We have strongly condemned this move. Nevertheless, Frontiir is bound by national law under its licencing agreement and is unable to go against an official government directive. Frontiir has been open and transparent about these orders, acting in accordance with the Global Network initiative agreement, including posting a statement on their website. This is in line with the approach taken by other responsible internet platforms in Myanmar. Frontiir is an observer member of the Global Network Initiative and we remain in close communication with them on the current situation. CDC is reviewing the impact of the 1st February Myanmar coup on its investments in the country.

CDC Group's (CDC) investment in Frontiir has previously helped connect over one million people in Myanmar to the internet at affordable prices, thereby increasing access to information, boosting businesses, supporting education and tackling poverty. CDC carries out due diligence on every investment it makes, including Frontiir. Frontiir has at all times adhered to international best practice and the company has become an observer of the Global Network Initiative at CDC's request.

Following the Myanmar military coup on 1 February, the UK Government is reviewing all programmes in country and will work to ensure no funds reach the military. CDC has enhanced the private sector due diligence regime to effectively mitigate the risk of UK funds going to government institutions. In addition, FCDO has written to partners asking them to review supply chains, to check UK money is not being used to purchase goods and services from military owned companies.

The UK Government has led international efforts to end female genital mutilation (FGM), including through a partnership with the Africa-led movement to end FGM. Since 2013, UK aid has helped over 10,000 communities, representing over 27 million people, pledge to abandon the practice; and over 4 million girls and women have received health, social and legal services related to FGM.

At the grassroots level, UK aid has supported activists, communities and experts across Africa, in their efforts to end FGM within their local context. We have also funded the United Nations to get laws and policies in place banning FGM in high prevalence countries. Through WHO, we have supported doctors, midwives and nurses to help care for survivors.

The UK Government has led international efforts to end female genital mutilation (FGM). Since 2013, UK aid has helped over 10,000 communities (representing over 27 million people) pledge to abandon FGM. Over 4 million girls and women have received health, social and legal services related to FGM. The UK will use its G7 Presidency to spearhead international action on Gender Equality - focusing on educating girls, empowering women, and ending violence against women and girls. As part of advancing SDG 4, we will seek to build support for ambitious new targets of getting 40 million more girls into education by 2025 and achieving a one-third improvement in girls' reading by age 10. We will also work towards a successful replenishment of the Global Partnership for Education. We are committed to delivering an inclusive COP26, including by addressing the needs and priorities of women and girls and advancing gender equality within climate action and finance. Quality education, especially for girls, is central to tackling climate change effectively.

As I [Minister Adams] tweeted on 9 October 2020, this is an important report which shines a spotlight on the ongoing discrimination faced by the Rohingya, and other minorities, confined to camps in Rakhine State. Myanmar must adhere to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) provisional measures order and end discrimination against the Rohingya and other minorities. The UK has consistently expressed concern at restrictions on Rohingya, including freedom of movement and access to healthcare.

The UK is one of the largest donors in Rakhine, supporting the Rohingya who remain through assistance with water, sanitation and hygiene facilities, health services, protection, livelihoods, education and food aid.

We are clear that returns must be voluntary, safe and dignified and the Rohingya should be granted rights and status within Myanmar. I [Minister Adams] raised the importance of human rights and full citizenship rights for the Rohingya in my call with the Myanmar Minister for International Cooperation in June 2020 and the Foreign Secretary emphasised these messages in his call with the Minister in July. Our Ambassador and Development Director regularly discuss the issue of returns with Government of Myanmar, including most recently with the Minister for Social Welfare on 18 January.

Both I and the Foreign Secretary raised our concern about the exclusion of the Rohingya from the democratic process in the run up the elections last year with Myanmar's Minister for International Co-operation. The UK strongly believes all individuals should have the right to freely participate in the democratic process and we remain very concerned that the Rohingya and other minority ethnic groups were excluded from these elections. Universal suffrage for all people in Myanmar, including the Rohingya, and the right to stand as a candidate are key to achieving effective democracy. We are clear that the 1982 Citizenship Law is deeply flawed and enables the exclusion of Rohingya and other minorities on spurious grounds. The Rohingya, who have lived in Myanmar for generations, should be granted full citizenship and the associated rights.

The UK has targeted sanctions in place on 16 individuals from the Myanmar armed forces for their role in atrocities against Rohingya and other minorities. We have sanctioned all six individuals identified by the United Nations Fact Finding Mission. This includes the Commander-in-Chief and his Deputy. We will continue to consider designating persons under the Global Human Rights sanctions regulations in order to deter and provide accountability for serious human rights violations or abuses around the world. It is not appropriate to speculate who may be designated under the sanctions regime in the future. To do this could reduce the impact of the designations.

The UK Government supports the Guttmacher-Lancet definition of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), and SHRH services are a core pillar of our action to end preventable deaths of mothers, newborns and children by 2030. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the importance of SRHR to this goal. Recent estimates suggest that, over one year, a 10-19% decline in reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health services, alongside increasing child malnutrition, will result in 24,400 additional maternal deaths and ?506,900 additional child deaths.

Gender equality is a core part of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office's work as a force for good in the world. As part of the creation of the FCDO, we are building on existing strategies and reviewing structures and roles, including the Special Envoy for Gender Equality. The UK is committed to promoting every girl's right to 12 years of quality education, by working to accelerate progress towards getting marginalised girls into schools, staying there, and staying safe. The Strategic Vision for Gender Equality reflects and responds to the UK Government's ambitions, and works alongside our National Action Plan (NAP) on Women, Peace and Security.

The UK government fully endorses the Guttmacher-Lancet definition of sexual and reproductive health and rights and promote this in our international engagement. The UK works hard to support this comprehensive package of services through our long-term investments in family planning, safe abortion care, maternal and newborn health, HIV treatment and prevention, and our efforts to end female genital mutilation and child, early and forced marriage. Sexual and reproductive health and rights services - as defined by Guttmacher-Lancet - are a core pillar of our action to end preventable deaths of mothers, newborns and children by 2030, including through our bilateral health and SRHR programmes.

The seismic impact of the pandemic on the UK economy has forced us to take the tough but necessary decision, to temporarily reduce the overall amount we spend on ODA. Despite the reduction in our spend, the UK remains committed to advancing gender equality, and women's and girls' rights, and we are preparing to take full advantage of the opportunities that 2021 will offer. This includes the UK's Presidency of the G7, co-hosting the Global Partnership for Education replenishment, COP26 and co-leadership of the new global Action Coalition on gender-based violence.

The Foreign Secretary has been clear, we will remain a world leading aid donor. By combining aid with diplomacy and ensuing a coherent approach across Government departments, we will be focusing our efforts where the UK can make a world-leading difference to deliver maximum impact for every pound we spend.

We know that COVID-19 is disproportionately effecting women and girls globally, therefore gender equality plays a central role in FCDO's response. Through the UN's Financing for Development "Recovering Better for Sustainability" work strand, the UK has helped to create a set of international principles for a green, inclusive and resilient COVID-19 recovery, with gender equality at its core. FCDO continues to work with international partners to deliver on these proposals.

We have provided an additional £10 million to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to address reproductive health supply shortages and scale up reporting, protection, and support services for women and girls affected. We provided an additional £1 million to the UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women, on top of our existing £21 million contribution, to support long-term interventions for survivors.

We are tackling violence against women and girls through our co-leadership of the UN's Action Coalition on Gender-Based Violence and our plans to launch a new seven-year programme to scale-up effective interventions to prevent violence against women and girls.

The UK will put girls' education and gender equality high on the agenda in our G7 Presidency, and as co-hosts of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) Replenishment we will place gender at the heart of GPE's work to transform education systems worldwide.

The UK Government is monitoring the situation and is in regular dialogue with the Government of Bangladesh, the UN and our INGO partners. We support the UN position that independent, full and detailed technical and protection assessments are needed to evaluate the safety and sustainability of living on Bhasan Char, and that any relocation should be voluntary and based on relevant, accurate and updated information.

The Minister for South Asia underlined the importance of these points in a call with Bangladesh's Foreign Minister Momen on 19 November, and has discussed the issue several times with the Bangladesh High Commissioner in London. The British High Commissioner in Dhaka regularly engages with the Government of Bangladesh on Bhasan Char and has underlined the importance of allowing the UN to conduct these full technical and protection assessments. The Development Director also talks regularly to the UN Heads of Agencies and Resident Coordinator who are in constant touch with the Government.

The UK Government is monitoring the situation and is in regular dialogue with the Government of Bangladesh, the UN and our INGO partners. We support the UN position that independent, full and detailed technical and protection assessments are needed to evaluate the safety and sustainability of living on Bhasan Char, and that any relocation should be voluntary and based on relevant, accurate and updated information.

The Minister for South Asia underlined the importance of these points in a call with Bangladesh's Foreign Minister Momen on 19 November, and has discussed the issue several times with the Bangladesh High Commissioner in London. The British High Commissioner in Dhaka regularly engages with the Government of Bangladesh on Bhasan Char and has underlined the importance of allowing the UN to conduct these full technical and protection assessments. The Development Director also talks regularly to the UN Heads of Agencies and Resident Coordinator who are in constant touch with the Government.

The UK has repeatedly taken a leading international role in holding China to account for its egregious human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other minorities. This has included leading joint statements at the UN Human Rights Council in June and the UN Third Committee last October. HMG's long-standing policy is that the determination of genocide should only be made by a competent court, rather than by governments or non-judicial bodies.

The UK is a global leader in efforts to eliminate trafficking, exploitation and violence against women and girls (VAWG) in all its forms. We have committed over £200 million in UK aid to tackle human trafficking and modern slavery by reducing vulnerability to exploitation and addressing the environments that allow human trafficking to thrive. For example, the £13 million "Work in Freedom" programme is working to reduce vulnerability to trafficking and forced labour of women and girls across migration pathways leading to the care sector and textiles, clothing, leather and footwear industries of South Asia and the Arab States.

In September 2020, FCDO launched the tender for our new £67.5 million programme to scale up effective interventions to prevent VAWG across development and humanitarian contexts - in homes, schools, workplaces and communities. This is the largest investment by any donor government in programming and research to prevent VAWG globally. The UK has also taken up leadership of the new Global Action Coalition on gender based violence (GBV) and will use this to drive more concerted, coordinated and scaled-up global action across the international system to prevent GBV in all its forms. Since 2018, the Government has taken concerted action to prevent abuse by aid workers in both public and private spheres and to improve the response when it happens. We introduced enhanced safeguarding standards and regularly assess partners against them. We created Project Soteria with INTERPOL to strengthen vetting of aid workers and information sharing among law enforcement agencies. Last month the Government published a safeguarding strategy covering all UK aid spend which builds on commitments made at the 2018 London Safeguarding Summit.

The UK continues to be a progressive champion of comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights for all in accordance with the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcomes documents of their review conferences.

The UK works with partners to provide quality and comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services and protect and progress sexual and reproductive rights: from tackling HIV, to family planning, maternal and newborn health, to supporting efforts to end Female Genital Mutilation and child, early and forced marriage, and supporting safe abortion services.

At the recent United Nations General Assembly High Level Meeting celebrating twenty-five years since Beijing, the Foreign Secretary outlined the UK's ambition for gender equality. The UK, along with 81 Member States joined a statement reconfirming our unwavering commitment to championing sexual and reproductive health and rights and promoting gender equality. The UK remains committed to ensuring services are prioritised and rights are protected during the COVID-19 response to protect the significant gains made to date.

The UK continues to be a progressive champion of comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights for all in accordance with the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcomes documents of their review conferences.

The UK works with partners to provide quality and comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services and protect and progress sexual and reproductive rights: from tackling HIV, to family planning, maternal and newborn health, to supporting efforts to end Female Genital Mutilation and child, early and forced marriage, and supporting safe abortion services.

At the recent United Nations General Assembly High Level Meeting celebrating twenty-five years since Beijing, the Foreign Secretary outlined the UK's ambition for gender equality. The UK, along with 81 Member States joined a statement reconfirming our unwavering commitment to championing sexual and reproductive health and rights and promoting gender equality. The UK remains committed to ensuring services are prioritised and rights are protected during the COVID-19 response to protect the significant gains made to date.

The UK Government is committed to protecting vulnerable children and helping them to grow up free from violence through COVID-19 and beyond. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) plays a leading global role in efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 16.2 to end the violence, abuse and exploitation of children. This includes supporting a systems approach to child protection that ensures people, policies and services are working together to prevent harm from happening and to respond effectively when incidences occur.

The FCDO is working with international partners to ensure that child protection is prioritised and integrated into the multi-sectoral response to COVID-19. We have provided £20 million to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to support the continuity of essential social services for children, including maintaining and adapting prevention and response services for children affected by violence during COVID-19. FCDO is also adapting our child protection programming to respond to COVID-19. For example, our Children on the Move programme, which is improving the child protection system for children migrating in Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia, has established hotline services for children affected by the pandemic and increased the capacity of social workers with protective equipment to continue their roles in protecting children.

The UK is a global leader in efforts to eliminate Child, Early and Forced Marriage (CEFM) and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

The UK invested £39 million in the UN and civil society programmes to end child marriage between 2015 and 2020 and also tackles child marriage through programmes to promote gender equality and girls' education. These actions have contributed to a 15% reduction of global prevalence of child marriage over the last decade, averting 25 million child marriages. Ending child marriage will remain a key focus, including as part of our work to deliver the Prime Minister's commitment to champion 12 years of quality education for girls.

The UK's dedicated Forced Marriage Unit continues to lead efforts to combat forced marriage in the UK and provides dedicated support to victims and those at-risk. Since 2008, 2,605 Forced Marriage Protection Orders were issued related to marriages undertaken or planning in the UK and overseas.

The UK continues to lead the world in our support to the Africa-led movement to end FGM. Since 2013, the UK has supported over 10,000 communities to pledge to abandon FGM. In 2018 we announced a further £50 million for investments to galvanise leadership at the grassroots level in Africa, improve data quality and systems, support the UN and WHO, and to expand our programme in Sudan, which helped the country take steps to ban FGM this year.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has allocated the following funding directly to education:

UK Bilateral Education ODA Spend (excluding post-secondary)

£ millions

Source: Final Statistics for International Development 2019 (SID)

~ is less than half the smallest unit displayed

Note 1: values exclude the OECD DAC "Post-secondary education" broad sector

Note 2: values include the OECD DAC "Education, Level Unspecified" broad sector, which may cross-cut all tiers of education

FCDO provides significant support to protect children from violence in developing countries, with child protection interventions embedded across our development and humanitarian programming. There are currently no markers within the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) database that allow for the systematic identification and tracking of all spending on violence against children. FCDO will consider engaging with the OECD about how this might be tracked via Official Development Assistance Statistics in the future.

The UK Government is committed to protecting vulnerable children and helping them to grow up free from violence. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) plays a leading global role in efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 16.2 to end the violence, abuse and exploitation of children. Tackling violence against girls in particular is central to the Prime Minister's commitment to champion 12 years of quality education for every girl.

The Integrated Review and the creation of the FCDO are evidence of the Prime Minister's commitment to a unified British foreign policy that will maximise our influence around the world, ensuring the UK is a force for good in the world. Our aim continues to be for an ambitious and bold Integrated Review that is guided by the UK's foreign policy, national security and development objectives. The Integrated Review will conclude alongside the Spending Review in the Autumn and inform the priorities of FCDO.

The UK Government is committed to protecting vulnerable children and helping them to grow up free from violence. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) plays a leading global role in efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 16.2 to end the violence, abuse and exploitation of children. Tackling violence against girls in particular is central to the Prime Minister's commitment to champion 12 years of quality education for every girl.

The Integrated Review and the creation of the FCDO are evidence of the Prime Minister's commitment to a unified British foreign policy that will maximise our influence around the world, ensuring the UK is a force for good in the world. Our aim continues to be for an ambitious and bold Integrated Review that is guided by the UK's foreign policy, national security and development objectives. The Integrated Review will conclude alongside the Spending Review in the Autumn and inform the priorities of FCDO.

Reaching the world's most marginalised children is critical to global progress towards SDG4, and the UK is dedicated to supporting education in emergencies and protracted crises (EiEPC). We allocate over 50% of UK aid education funds to fragile and conflict affected states (FCAS). At a global level, the UK is the largest donor to Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the fund for education in emergencies.

All of our EiEPC funding aims to ensure that children are safe from violence and exploitation, and able to access education: we know that in emergency settings the protective element of education is as crucial as access to learning opportunities (whether inside or beyond formal schooling). Our unprecedented contribution to ECW (£90 million from 2019 to 2023), for instance, provides children safe spaces to learn and prepares teachers to provide psycho-social support in classrooms to help children recover from trauma.

The Integrated Review will cover all aspects of international and national security policy, such as defence, diplomacy, development and national resilience. The UK Government is committed to the eradication of all forms of forced labour, modern slavery and human trafficking worldwide by 2030 as set out in Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8.7. Building on the 2017 Call to Action to end forced labour, modern slavery and human trafficking, which has now been endorsed by 92 countries, the UK jointly launched the 'Principles to Combat Human Trafficking in Global Supply Chains' with the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand at the UN General Assembly in September 2018. These Principles commit governments to implementing a range of measures that help address modern slavery in global supply chains. We will continue to work alongside regional partners to drive international action and target our efforts around specific themes of the Call to Action encouraging member states who have endorsed to report on tangible action that has been taken as a result. We will also continue to look for opportunities to deliver on modern slavery objectives, and encourage political commitment and actions to make progress on SDG 8.7. Ending forced labour, modern slavery and human trafficking will remain a core part of the Government's mission and remain a priority for the new FCDO.

The UK Government is committed to protecting vulnerable children through our programmes and our international leadership. The UK is a founding Board member of, and the largest donor to, the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children (End Violence) which is driving the international movement to deliver Sustainable Development Goal 16.2. Through FCDO's Ending Violence, Abuse and Exploitation of Children programme, we provide £10 million to End Violence, including to deliver the Safe to Learn initiative to end violence in schools, and £10 million to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to prevent and respond to violence, abuse, and exploitation of children on the move in Somalia, Ethiopia, and Sudan. FCDO also supports a range of child protection programmes and interventions in developing countries, embedded across our development and humanitarian programming.

The UK is a global leader in efforts to eliminate Child, Early and Forced Marriage, including as part of our work to deliver the Prime Minister's commitment to champion 12 years of quality education for girls. We will continue to promote the need for progress on a wide range of issues that hold girls back from accessing a quality education and achieving their potential. This must include global efforts to end child marriage and all forms of violence against girls and women.

The forecasted spend for the Girls' Education Challenge in Financial Year (F/Y) 20/21 in these countries is broken down as follows:

The UK is a global leader in efforts to eliminate violence, exploitation and abuse of girls in all its forms and remains unwavering in our defence of women's and girls' right to live free from violence. The COVID-19 pandemic has further underscored the need for urgent, scaled-up action on gender-based violence (GBV). Ending child marriage will remain a key focus, including as part of our work to deliver the Prime Minister's commitment to champion 12 years of quality education for girls. FCDO's world-leading £50 million UK aid package to tackle FGM across the most-affected countries in Africa is the biggest single donor investment worldwide to date, and will run until 2025.

In September 2020, FCDO launched the tender for our new £67.5 million programme to scale up effective interventions to prevent Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) across development and humanitarian contexts, and to continue expanding the evidence base as a global public good. This is the largest investment by any donor government in programming and research to prevent VAWG globally. The UK has also taken up leadership of the new Global Action Coalition on GBV. We will take an evidence-based approach that prioritises the most marginalised and excluded women and girls, with a particular focus on adolescent girls. Safeguarding against sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment in the aid sector also remains a priority. Last month the Government published a safeguarding strategy covering all UK aid spend which builds on commitments made at the 2018 London Safeguarding Summit.

The FCDO is engaging widely on the Integrated Review, and will continue to do so over the course of the Review. As part of our engagement on the Integrated Review, we have worked with the Cabinet Office to deliver six in-depth dialogues through Wilton Park, bringing together domestic and international subject-matter experts from international politics, academia, business, civil society and youth groups. In September the Government issued a Call for Evidence to help inform the Integrated Review. This received more than 450 replies from a broad range of external stakeholders including think tanks, international organisations, NGOs and religious organisations.

The Integrated Review will cover all aspects of international and national security policy, such as defence, diplomacy, development and national resilience. The Youth, Peace and Security agenda is an important component of the UK's work to promote human rights and support sustainable peace processes. At the UN Security Council on 14 July, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted UN Resolution 2535 on the vital role of youth in preventing and resolving conflict, as well as in building and maintaining peace. We continue to prioritise preventive diplomacy and mediation through the UN and push for greater collaboration on peacebuilding amongst international organisations. At the UN Open Debate on Children and Armed Conflict on 23 June, the UK reaffirmed our commitment to tackling violations against children in armed conflict and highlighted the need for a transparent and credible framework for accountability based on a standardised and evidence-backed approach to de-listing and listing of state and non-state actors for violations. We also continue to drive more concerted, coordinated and scaled-up global action across the international system to prevent gender-based violence in conflict settings. Gender equality that includes youth and children's rights will remain a core part of the Government's mission and it is at the heart of the new Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

Championing 12 years of quality education for all girls is a top priority for this Government and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. As the effects of the COVID-19 crisis play out, the socio-economic impact on girls has become increasingly clear and the focus on girls' education across the world is more important than ever.

Difficult decisions have been necessary to identify the savings needed to ensure we meet the 0.7 per cent Official Development Assistance (ODA) commitment this year. As a result, some programme spend for this financial year has been reduced or deferred. The Foreign Secretary chaired a review process across government looking at all strands of the ODA budget, evaluating the impacts of spend and making sure the UK can maintain operational capacity. This process has made sure there continues to be support and commitment to ODA priorities, including girls' education long term.

Girls' education programmes are FCDO investments to increase education access, attainment and opportunities for girls. Standing up for the right of every girl to 12 years of quality education is a major priority for this Government and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. As the effects of the COVID-19 crisis play out, the socio-economic impact on girls has become increasingly clear and the focus on girls' education across the world is more important than ever.

Between 2015 and 2020, the UK supported at least 15.6 million children to gain a decent education, of which 8.1 million were girls. Our bilateral programmes and funding to organisations like the Global Partnership for Education and Education Cannot Wait make the UK a global leader in promoting girls' education.

Championing the right of every girl to 12 years of quality education is a top priority for this Government and the new Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. As the effects of the COVID-19 crisis play out, the socio-economic impact on girls has become increasingly clear and the focus on girls' education across the world is more important than ever.

The review of the ODA budget has made sure there continues to be support and commitment to ODA priorities, including girls' education. We are continuing with plans for a new girls' education programme in Africa that will empower marginalised girls.

There is a significant body of evidence about the range and extent of human rights violations in Xinjiang, including the Chinese authorities' own publicly-available government documents, and satellite imagery. The UN has made clear recommendations to China, including to release those arbitrarily detained in camps. We have repeatedly called on China to urgently implement those recommendations and allow unfettered access to the High Commissioner for Human Rights and UN experts.

We encourage the Turkish authorities to safeguard the welfare and respect the human rights of all refugees in Turkey.

The UK has played a leading role at the Human Rights Council, and in the UN Third Committee to call for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to be allowed meaningful access to Xinjiang. The UK is the only country to have led formal joint statements on Xinjiang in relevant UN fora, including on the issue of UN access. On 30 June, the UK read out a formal statement on behalf of 28 countries at the 44th session of the UN Human Rights Council, and on 29 October 2019, the UK read out a statement on Xinjiang on behalf of 23 countries at the UN Third Committee in New York. We will continue to work with international partners at the UN to maximise pressure on the Chinese Government over its egregious human rights violations against Uyghur Muslims and other minorities in Xinjiang.

The UK recognises and supports the extraordinary generosity of Turkey in hosting over 4 million refugees - more than any other host country in the world. 3.6 million of these refugees are from neighbouring Syria where the brutal conflict is now in its tenth year.

The UK supports the efforts of the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR, which provides assistance and protection to refugee population groups, irrespective of nationality, across Turkey and UNHCR's Global Operations.

Advancing gender equality and women's rights are a core part of the UK Government's mission, and Global Britain's role as a force for good in the world, including fulfilling every girl's right to 12 years of quality education. The Government remains steadfast in its commitment to this agenda.

The new FCDO will continue to be a progressive force for women and girls, including for their sexual and reproductive health and rights and ensuring that their needs are central to our COVID-19 humanitarian response. We will work closely with partners across HMG to leverage the best development, diplomatic, defence and trade approaches to achieve maximum impact.

As part of the launch of the new Department, we will refresh and build on existing strategies, as well as develop new approaches, but we do not see the core ambitions of the Strategic Vision for Gender Equality changing. The challenges of advancing girls' education, sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR), women's political empowerment, women's economic empowerment and ending violence against women and girls (VAWG) are as acute now, if not more so, as when we published the strategy in 2018.

Given the likely decrease in the size of the economy this year, all Official Development Assistance (ODA) spending departments have identified changes to the budget.

The careful review process looked at every strand of the ODA budget, evaluating the impacts of spend and making sure we can maintain operational capacity. This has been a thorough process, but we have been able to ensure that the money we will still spend in 2020 includes prioritising poverty reduction for the 'bottom billion', and championing every girls' right to 12 years of quality education. Advancing gender equality and women's rights are critical to achieving these agendas and remains core to this government's mission.

The FCDO will build on the UK's world-leading track record on gender equality, which includes fighting successfully for SDG5, and targets on gender equality across the other goals. Since the goals began in 2015, we reached an average of 25.3 million total women and girls with modern methods of family planning per year, helping to save thousands of lives. The UK International Development Act (Gender Equality) 2014 also means that consideration of gender equality in all UK Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) is a legal requirement.

Championing 12 years of quality education for all girls is a top priority for this Government and the new Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. As the effects of the COVID-19 crisis play out, the socio-economic impact on girls has become increasingly clear and the focus on girls' education across the world is more important than ever.

Difficult decisions have been necessary to identify the savings needed to ensure we meet the 0.7 per cent Official Development Assistance (ODA) commitment this year. The Foreign Secretary chaired a review process across government looking at all strands of the ODA budget, evaluating the impacts of spend and making sure the UK can maintain operational capacity. This process has made sure there is continued support and commitment to ODA priorities, including girls' education.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office's National Statistics publication - 'Statistics on International Development' will provide a full breakdown of UK Official Development Assistance (ODA) spend for the previous calendar year.

The Statistics for International Development published in Autumn 2021 will provide a full breakdown of the UK's ODA spend for 2020.

Gender equality is a core part of the FCDO's work as a force for good in the world. The UK has a proud track record in a number of areas. For example, the right of every girl around the world to receive 12 years of quality education remains a top priority. The Prime Minister appointed Baroness Sugg as the UK Special Envoy for Girls' Education in March 2020. Between 2015 and 2020, we supported 8.1 million girls gain access to a decent education. The Strategic Vision for Gender Equality reflects and responds to the UK Government's ambitions and works alongside our National Action Plan (NAP) on Women Peace and Security. As part of creation of the FCDO we will be building on existing strategies and reviewing structures and roles, including that of the Special Envoy for Gender Equality.

In 2019 the UK announced the biggest ever investment of £67.5 million by a single Government to prevent violence against women and girls. We are recognised internationally for our leadership on the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative to which we have committed £46 million since 2012, supporting over 85 projects across 29 countries. We also continue to reach girls and women with life-saving sexual and reproductive health services, including with an additional £10 million for UN Population Fund's COVID-19 response. We will mark the 20th anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security in October with the support of HRH The Countess of Wessex, HMG's champion on Women Peace and Security and the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative. The FCDO network will mark the anniversary, focusing on elevating and legitimising the work of women peacebuilders. We are also supporting the International Civil Society Action Network's Protection Framework for Women Peacebuilders which will provide guidance to states and multilateral organisations on how to prevent and respond to reprisals against women peacebuilders.

The Government of Bangladesh agreed earlier this year to ensure Rohingya children have access to the Myanmar curriculum. Since then the COVID-19 crisis has forced the closure of all learning centres in the camps. Education partners have tried to ensure continuity of learning; for example, by providing caregivers with learning materials. We hope learning centres will re-open soon, with measures in place to ensure the safety of pupils and teachers. This includes piloting the Myanmar curriculum. The Foreign Secretary has stressed the importance of this in his communication with the Government of Bangladesh. FCDO officials regularly engage on education for Rohingya refugees, including through the Myanmar curriculum, with stakeholders in Cox's Bazar, Dhaka and London.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has consistently engaged with the Government of Bangladesh on the importance of restoring internet services in the Cox's Bazar refugee camps since restrictions were introduced in September 2019. The Foreign Secretary raised this in a letter to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in July. The Minister for South Asia, Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, has discussed the issue several times with the Bangladesh High Commissioner in London. The British High Commissioner in Dhaka has also spoken with the Prime Minister's Foreign Policy Adviser and with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. On Friday 28 August, we were pleased to see internet services restored in the camps.

The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) is committed to putting diversity and inclusion at its heart.

The people appointed to the interim Board bring a range of experience, including from FCDO, HM Treasury, BEIS, Cabinet Office, the private and voluntary sectors and academia. It is not possible to provide a breakdown by gender or ethnicity for the Board members as this would contravene GDPR principles. Biographies of all Board members can be found on Gov.UK.

Revised ODA allocations for 2020/21 will be published by HM Treasury at Autumn Budget.

Revised ODA allocations for 2020/21 will be published by HM Treasury at Autumn Budget.

Revised ODA allocations for 2020/21 will be published by HM Treasury at Autumn Budget.

Revised Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) allocations for 2020/21 will be published by HM Treasury at the Autumn Budget. The next step will be to discuss specific savings with suppliers and partners and revised ODA allocations will be published in due course after this has been completed.

The Statistics for International Development published in 2021 will provide a full breakdown of the UK's ODA spend for 2020.

Revised ODA allocations for 2020/21 will be published by HM Treasury at Autumn Budget. The next step will be to discuss specific savings with suppliers and partners and revised ODA allocations will be published in due course after this has been completed.

The Statistics for International Development published in 2021 will provide a full breakdown of the UK's ODA spend for 2020.

Revised ODA allocations for 2020/21 will be published by HM Treasury at Autumn Budget. The next step will be to discuss specific savings with suppliers and partners and revised ODA allocations will be published in due course after this has been completed.

The Statistics for International Development published in 2021 will provide a full breakdown of the UK's ODA spend for 2020.

Revised ODA allocations for 2020/21 will be published by HM Treasury at Autumn Budget. The next step will be to discuss specific savings with suppliers and partners and revised ODA allocations will be published in due course after this has been completed.

The Statistics for International Development published in 2021 will provide a full breakdown of the UK's ODA spend for 2020.

Revised ODA allocations for 2020/21 will be published by HM Treasury at Autumn Budget. The next step will be to discuss specific savings with suppliers and partners and revised ODA allocations will be published in due course after this has been completed.

The Statistics for International Development published in 2021 will provide a full breakdown of the UK's ODA spend for 2020.

Revised ODA allocations for 2020/21 will be published by HM Treasury at Autumn Budget. The next step will be to discuss specific savings with suppliers and partners and revised ODA allocations will be published in due course after this has been completed.

The Statistics for International Development published in 2021 will provide a full breakdown of the UK's ODA spend for 2020.

The total number of Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office staff is 7842 UK Based Staff and 9208 Local Staff/Staff Appointed in Country. This reflects the most recent data held by FCO and DFID

Facilities management services are provided to us by Interserve FM via existing contracts and they will continue to deliver the services as originally contracted to do so.

The UK's Gender Equality Act 2014 (an amendment to 2002 International Development Act, IDA) requires all overseas development funding to consider the impact of how it will contribute to reducing gender inequality. The UK Aid Strategy prioritises the rights of women and girls under its fourth strategic goal of tacking extreme poverty and helping the world's most vulnerable. The FCO support a number of Official Development Assistance programmes targeted at promoting girls' education, empowering women peacebuilders and supporting female survivors of sexual violence in conflict. The programmes include lobbying efforts encouraging foreign governments to prioritise girls' education reforms, financial support for women mediator organisations, capacity building programmes for female judges and women peacebuilders and consultations with survivors of sexual violence.

Additional information on the FCO's ODA programmes can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/official-development-assistance-fco-programme-spend.

Merging the departments will mean changes for how teams are structured, and some roles and responsibilities will change. This work will take place over the coming months, and we are engaging fully with staff throughout this process. The full details of the merger will be set out in due course.

The UK's Gender Equality Act 2014 (an amendment to 2002 International Development Act, IDA), legally requires all overseas development funding to meaningfully consider the impact of how it will contribute to reducing gender inequality. The UK Aid Strategy prioritises the rights of women and girls under its fourth strategic goal of tacking extreme poverty and helping the world's most vulnerable.

The FCO supports a number of Official Development Assistance programmes targeted at promoting girls' education, empowering women peacebuilders and supporting female survivors of sexual violence in conflict. The programmes include lobbying efforts encouraging foreign governments to prioritise girls' education reforms, financial support for women mediator organisations, capacity building programmes for female judges and women peacebuilders and consultations with survivors of sexual violence. Additional information on the FCO's ODA programmes can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/official-development-assistance-fco-programme-spend

The UK is clear that the Myanmar military is ultimately responsible for the mass displacement of the Rohingya, which has in turn led many to flee the camps in Bangladesh by boat. We will continue to work for a de-escalation of the current conflict in Rakhine State and a sustainable solution which allows the Rohingya to return to their homes.

The United Kingdom supports the UN's call for a regional effort to ensure the safety of the Rohingya refugees who are displaced at sea, and has held numerous discussions with regional stakeholders to seek a resolution.

On 29 May, the Minister of State for South Asia, Lord Ahmad, raised the issue with the Bangladesh High Commissioner and thanked her after the Bangladesh Navy rescued Rohingya refugees stranded at sea. The British High Commission in Dhaka have also raised the matter with the Government of Bangladesh. Officials from the British Embassy in Bangkok have discussed with the Thai Government the importance of the provision of humanitarian assistance to Rohingyas aboard vessels that enter Thai waters. Our High Commission in Kuala Lumpur continues to raise our concerns about the situation of the Rohingya community with the Malaysian Government. We continue to raise these issues with regional partners, including on how the Bali Process might play a role. The United Kingdom will continue its commitment towards protecting the Rohingya people, who are amongst the most vulnerable in the region.

The UK's longstanding position on the Middle East Peace Process is clear and has not changed: we want to see a safe and secure Israel living alongside a viable and sovereign Palestinian state; based on 1967 borders with agreed land swaps, Jerusalem as the shared capital of both states, and a just, fair, agreed and realistic settlement for refugees. But exactly how that vision is achieved will be a result of negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. Only the leaders of Israel and the Palestinians can determine whether these proposals can meet the needs and aspirations of the people they represent.

The UK's longstanding position on the Middle East Peace Process is clear and has not changed: we support a negotiated settlement leading to a safe and secure Israel living alongside a viable and sovereign Palestinian state; based on 1967 borders with agreed land swaps and a just, fair, agreed and realistic settlement for refugees. It must also ensure Jerusalem is a shared capital of the Israeli and Palestinian states, with access and religious rights of both peoples respected.

All serious proposals for peace deserve a fair hearing. A peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians that leads to peaceful coexistence could unlock the potential for the entire region, and provide both sides with the opportunity for a brighter future. Only Israeli and Palestinian leaders can determine whether these proposals can meet the needs and aspirations of the people they represent. We encourage them to give these plans genuine and fair consideration, and explore whether they might prove a first step on the road back to negotiations.

We continue to raise the importance of countering discrimination within the Commonwealth, including on grounds of gender identity or sexual orientation. Working through the UN Human Rights Council, the Council of Europe, the Commonwealth and other multilateral fora, we regularly raise concerns about countries that do not comply with their human rights obligations and promote nondiscrimination against LGBT people. The UK was one of the founding members of the Equal Rights Coalition (ERC) a grouping of 42 like-minded countries working together with civil society to address violence and discrimination against LGBT individuals, and the ongoing criminalisation of same sex conduct in 70 countries.

The UK took over the role of ERC co-chair in June 2019, in partnership with Argentina and will host an international conference on LGBT rights in London on 27-29 May. The conference will address the issues of violence, discrimination and ongoing criminalisation and will set out how the ERC proposes to address those issues with the launch of a new ERC Strategy.

In her speech to the Commonwealth Forums in April 2018, the former Prime Minister set out the UK's readiness to support any member state wanting to reform outdated legislation that makes discrimination on the grounds of gender identity or sexual orientation possible and stressed the importance of our common value of equality, a value that is clearly stated in the Commonwealth Charter. As part of that offer the UK announced a £5.6m programme working with civil society organisations to support those countries seeking to reform outdated discriminatory legislation affecting women, girls and LGBT individuals.

As I mentioned in my answer of 17 October 2019, the UK Government is taking steps to ensure goods sold in the UK do not originate from sources that use forced labour. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office works closely with the Home Office in helping companies and industry stakeholders understand their risks overseas, and officials continue to monitor the situation in China.

The Government is committed to the eradication of all forms of forced labour, modern slavery and human trafficking as set out in Sustainable Development Goal 8.7, and has made tackling modern slavery a foreign policy priority. The Home Office have responsibility for ensuring compliance with Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, which obliges certain commercial organisations to publish a modern slavery statement for each financial year. The requirement to publish annual statements is designed to drive progress against long-term strategies, to assess risks and identify priority areas for business improvement. As the published statutory guidance sets out, the Modern Slavery Act emphasises a transparency-focused approach rather than investigations of due diligence.

The Home Office has written twice to the CEOs of companies identified as in scope of the legislation with clear information about how to meet their obligations. Following an Independent Review of the Modern Slavery Act the Home Office has also consulted on proposals to strengthen the legislation and introduce new enforcement powers. The Home Office is currently analysing the responses to this consultation and will respond in due course.

As I mentioned in my answer of 17 October 2019, the UK Government is taking steps to ensure goods sold in the UK do not originate from sources that use forced labour. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office works closely with the Home Office in helping companies and industry stakeholders understand their risks overseas, and officials continue to monitor the situation in China.

The Government is committed to the eradication of all forms of forced labour, modern slavery and human trafficking as set out in Sustainable Development Goal 8.7, and has made tackling modern slavery a foreign policy priority. The Home Office have responsibility for ensuring compliance with Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, which obliges certain commercial organisations to publish a modern slavery statement for each financial year. The requirement to publish annual statements is designed to drive progress against long-term strategies, to assess risks and identify priority areas for business improvement. As the published statutory guidance sets out, the Modern Slavery Act emphasises a transparency-focused approach rather than investigations of due diligence.

The Home Office has written twice to the CEOs of companies identified as in scope of the legislation with clear information about how to meet their obligations. Following an Independent Review of the Modern Slavery Act the Home Office has also consulted on proposals to strengthen the legislation and introduce new enforcement powers. The Home Office is currently analysing the responses to this consultation and will respond in due course.

As the Foreign Secretary stated in Parliament on 26 September, the status of British Nationals (Overseas) (BN(O)) was a part of the delicate balance in negotiations that led to the Sino-British Joint Declaration. We are not seeking to change the status of any one part of that package but rather to ensure it is respected by both sides. As such, we have no plans to change the status of BN(O) or to provide pathways to full citizenship beyond those that already exist. The best outcome for BN(O) is for the high degree of autonomy and rights and freedoms set out in the Joint Declaration and provided for in the Basic Law to be upheld. This is where we are focusing our efforts.

The Treasury takes care to pay due regard to the equality impacts of its policy decisions relating to the Covid-19 outbreak, in line with all legal requirements and the Government’s commitment to promoting equality. There are internal procedural requirements and support in place for ensuring that such considerations inform decisions taken by Ministers.

The Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) is helping those that have been adversely affected by COVID-19, and has already provided over £13 billion of support. Those not eligible for the SEISS may still be eligible for other elements of the unprecedented package of financial support available. This package includes Bounce Back loans, tax deferrals, rental support, mortgage holidays, and other business support grants. All 11 million UK self-assessment taxpayers will also be able to benefit from the recently enhanced Time to Pay ‘self-service’ facility to form a 12-month, interest-free payment arrangement for up to £30,000 of self-assessment debt.

Furthermore, the Chancellor has announced additional funding to support cash grants of up to £2,100 per month primarily for businesses in the hospitality, accommodation and leisure sector who may be adversely affected by the restrictions in high-alert level areas. These grants will be available retrospectively for areas which have already been subject to restrictions, and come on top of higher levels of additional business support for Local Authorities moving into Tier 3 which, if scaled up across the country, would be worth more than £1 billion. These grants could benefit about 150,000 businesses in England, including hotels, restaurants, B&Bs and many more which are not legally required to close but have been adversely affected nonetheless by local restrictions.

Treasury Ministers regularly meet with the Secretary of State for Education to discuss education funding. The Government has committed to a £1 billion package to help students catch up on lost learning and £100 million to boost remote education. This is in addition to the £7.1 billion of core funding for schools announced at the 2019 spending round.

On skills provision to support the unemployed, in his Plan for Jobs, the Chancellor announced: new incentives to boost apprenticeships, funding to triple the number of traineeships and sector-based work academy placements, additional investment in the National Careers Service to support more adults with high quality careers guidance, and funding for school and college leavers to study high value courses when there are not employment opportunities available to them.

Additionally, from next April, adults who do not have a full Level 3 qualification will be able to take Level 3 qualifications in high value subjects for free. This support complements existing support for unemployed adults, funded through the Adult Education Budget.

The Chancellor recently announced that we will be providing additional funding to Local Authorities in Tier 2 areas to allow them to make grants of up to £2,100 per month to hospitality, leisure, and hotel/B&B businesses affected by the restrictions on socialising in those areas.

In addition, any business across England which is legally closed will receive grants worth up to £3,000 per month.

Finally, additional funding has been provided local authorities in Tier 3, to enable them to support businesses which can remain open but which are nonetheless severely affected by restrictions on socialising.

The Government is working closely with the insurers, the trade bodies and regulators to understand what more the industry can do to support firms as the economy reopens. We also continue to gather and monitor information on how different sectors, including the wedding industry, are being affected by the current crisis and the availability of cover.

The Government would need to assess access to insurance alongside any other barriers to a sector re-opening, such as social distancing restrictions, when determining the appropriate course of action.

Wedding operators are eligible for assistance through the wider Government support package if they are in financial difficulty. We continue to keep this package under close review.

We are undertaking a wide range of analysis to support decision making across government. We are keeping Parliament and the wider public updated on the analysis of covid including through several survey publications on business and social impacts available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-statistics-and-analysis#social-impacts.

More broadly, equality impacts have been identified as part of an ongoing process to support policy development and have been a key part of the decision-making process. The responsibility for equalities impact assessments lies with departments, who take this responsibility very seriously. Impact assessments are kept under review.

The Government has committed to an unprecedented package to support individuals through this difficult time. Those not eligible for the CJRS or SEISS may have access to other measures which are designed to ensure that people get help at this time.

The Government has injected an additional £9.3 billion into the welfare system according to OBR estimates. These changes include a £20 per week increase to the Universal Credit (UC) standard allowance and Working Tax Credit basic element, and a nearly £1 billion increase in support for renters through increases to the Local Housing Allowance rates for UC and Housing Benefit claimants.

HM Treasury allocates Official Development Assistance budgets to other government departments. The UK’s Gender Equality Act 2014 (an amendment to 2002 International Development Act, IDA), legally requires all overseas development funding to meaningfully consider the impact of how it will contribute to reducing gender inequality.

On 1 April 2014, the Government fundamentally reformed regulation of the consumer credit market, transferring regulatory responsibility to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Like other types of credit, litigation funding in the form of credit is regulated by the FCA and therefore its Consumer Credit Sourcebook applies to these products.

The FCA is looking at whether consumer harm needs to be mitigated in this sector and continues to monitor new firms providing credit to fund legal fees.