Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much of the increased funding to support women and girls announced in the 2021 Spending Review will support programmes with a focus on women and girls who face double vulnerabilities as members of minority faiths.

We recognise that women and girls from religious minorities can often suffer because of both their gender and their faith. That is why we ensure our human rights policy work considers the intersectionality of human rights, including the importance of addressing the specific vulnerabilities experienced by women and girls from religious minority communities. The Foreign Secretary has publicly committed to putting women and girls at the heart of foreign and development policy, this will be set out in the upcoming International Development Strategy and the upcoming Women and Girls Strategy, which will emphasise the importance of taking account of intersectionality and those facing multiple exclusions including on the basis of their ethnicity, religion or belief. FCDO also has ongoing policy work on Freedom of Religion or Belief - Fiona Bruce was appointed as the Prime Minister's Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief in December 2020.