Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent reports he has received on the number of civilians remaining in Aleppo.

​Last week the UN estimated that there were 40,000 civilians remaining in eastern Aleppo. Since then thousands have been evacuated, but there are still many civilians awaiting evacuation. The situation remains fluid and numbers of those remaining and being evacuated are changing each day. The UK has called for the safe evacuation of all those civilians who wish to leave. On 19 December with partners, we successfully secured the adoption of a UN Security Council Resolution which demands full access for the UN across Syria and in particular requests the UN to monitor evacuations from eastern Aleppo. All parties must now comply fully with this Resolution. It is crucial that the UN oversees these evacuations to ensure civilian protection.