Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what humanitarian assistance his Department is providing to civilians as a result of Turkey’s military action in the Kurdish controlled territory of northern Syria.

We are monitoring the situation in northern Syria very closely and the Secretary of State has been in touch with Sir Mark Lowcock, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, and other UN officials. We have allocated £40 million this financial year for our NGO and UN partners operating in Northeast Syria. Our funding is focused on providing vital food, water, shelter and healthcare. We have been in close dialogue with our partners to ensure that they have the flexibility to utilise this funding to meet immediate needs arising from the current military action in the region. We are assured that they do, but we will work closely with other UK Departments to keep this under review, given the fluidity of the situation on the ground and the significant access constraints for humanitarian actors on the ground.