Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps his Department will take to ensure the wellbeing of Baloch people in the event of further earthquakes in that region.

In response to the September 2013 earthquake in Balochistan, the UK provided relief and recovery interventions worth £2.5m. Monitoring of this assistance was carried out by third parties because some areas, including in Balochistan, were inaccessible for British Government staff.

The National Disaster Consortium (NDC), led by the UN International Organisation for Migration Pakistan under our Multi Year Humanitarian Programme, provides rapid responses to any humanitarian emergency throughout Pakistan. In Balochistan, we are providing drought and snow emergency response through the NDC.