Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effect of the reduction in Official Development Assistance spending on the UK’s funding for projects to help protect and rehabilitate vulnerable children from armed conflict.

The UK is firmly committed to ending the recruitment and use of child soldiers and to protecting all children affected by armed conflict. We demonstrate continued UK diplomatic leadership through our active participation in the UN Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict. The UK aims to embed the reintegration of children in armed conflict into longer-term development and peacebuilding strategies. The UK also supports a set of instruments that contribute to safeguarding the rights of children in armed conflict, including the Safe Schools Declaration to protect education from attack.