Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to improve the effectiveness of the UN Verification and Inspection Mechanism for Yemen.

The UK is providing £1.3 million to help the UN’s Verification and Inspection Mechanism (UNVIM) facilitate commercial imports of food and fuel through the Red Sea ports of Hodeidah and Saleef by giving the Saudi-led Coalition confidence that weapons are not coming into Yemen on commercial ships.

Alongside this financial support, we have also deployed UK experts to support the inspections of ships in Djibouti, increasing the proportion of physical inspections ten-fold.