Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the (a) political and (b) humanitarian situation in Lebanon as of 28 October 2021.

Lebanon is facing a severe economic crisis. Its people are suffering from the failure of Lebanon's political elites to deliver much-needed and long-promised reforms, exacerbated by the public health crisis caused by COVID-19 and the aftermath of the Beirut port explosion in August 2020.

Since 2011, the UK has allocated over £780 million in humanitarian and development funding to Lebanon. The UK and members of the International Support Group for Lebanon stand with the people of Lebanon in their time of need, but we are clear that Lebanon's leaders must implement a credible reform process as the only sustainable way to address the crisis. We need to see long-overdue reforms and an investigation into the tragic Beirut port explosion, which delivers justice for the victims. I raised this when I met the new Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati on 25 September. We continue to press the new government to implement the reforms needed set the country on a more sustainable footing.