Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if her Department will urgently make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the level of bilateral overseas development aid to the Kurdistan Region in Iraq to help tackle a potential second wave of covid-19 infections in that region.

The UK is supporting Iraq as it responds to the coronavirus outbreak. We have committed £16.9 million of funding to help combat coronavirus in Iraq, including in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. This is helping to provide hospitals and primary care clinics with clean water, medication, soap and equipment. We are working closely with UN and INGO partners to help Iraq manage the pandemic whilst continuing to meet the needs of the most vulnerable, including displaced people.

Since 2014, the UK has committed over £272 million in humanitarian support, and £110 million towards stabilisation efforts in Iraq, helping those who are most urgently in need following the conflict with Daesh.