Asked by: Baroness Cox (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of The Bishop of Truro's Independent Review for the Foreign Secretary of Foreign and Commonwealth Office Support for Persecuted Christians, published on 16 July 2019, which found that "religion plays a key part" in targeted violence by Fulani militia against Christian communities in Nigeria; whether they intend to publish a response to that report; and if so, when.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
The UK Government has accepted the recommendations of the Bishop of Truro's report and is working on implementing them. On Nigeria, the report considered intercommunal violence in the Middle Belt and terrorism in the North East. Given religion forms a fundamental part of the identity of most Nigerians, our assessment is that religion inevitably plays a part in incidences of violence affecting all faith communities, including some which involve Fulani herdsmen. As the report highlights, other factors also play a role. As part of HMG's response to issues flagged by the report, the FCO and Wilton Park co-hosted a conference on 'Fostering Social Cohesion in Nigeria' in February, exploring the complex causes of conflict and solutions to help ease tensions and reduce violence. Discussion also highlighted the importance of countering inaccurate narratives misrepresenting disparate incidents across multiple states as a homogenous religious conflict, and of inflammatory terminology as 'militia' to describe diverse ethnic groups. A full report from the event will issue this month.
Asked by: Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to support manufacturing in the North East of England.
Answered by Lord Duncan of Springbank
The Government recognises the importance of manufacturing to the North East and to the economy. Through the North East Local Enterprise Partnership Growth Deal, we are supporting job growth and economic development with £379.6 million of funding from the Local Growth Fund. This includes £42 million of funding for the International Advanced Manufacturing Park (IAMP) in Sunderland. Sunderland Council estimates that the IAMP will attract £300 million of private sector investment to help grow local manufacturing sectors.
We are also giving over £600 million to support the High Value Manufacturing Catapult network; their Centre for Process Innovation at Wilton focuses on the commercialisation of innovation, research and development, helping North East manufacturers to develop and adopt cutting edge technology.
Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many staff in his Department reported their religion as Islam in the latest period for which figures are available; what the reported ethnicity of those staff was; and how many of those staff were employed at each grade.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) employs around 13,000 staff, around 5,000 of whom are UK-based and 8,000 local staff. The FCO only holds diversity data centrally for UK-based staff. According to March 2019 data from the Annual Civil Service Employment Survey (ACSES), available publicly online, 4.5 per cent of UK-based FCO staff identified as Muslim, excluding Wilton Park and FCO Services staff. This 4.5 per cent figure does not include 'do not wish to declare' responses. According the ACSES survey, the FCO's reporting rate for religion or belief was 65.3 per cent in March 2019, excluding both blank and 'do not wish to declare' responses.
Asked by: Nic Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, which provider supplies energy to his Department; how much CO2 was emitted through his Department’s energy consumption in the latest period for which figures are available; whether the criteria his Department uses to selecting an energy supplier includes how environmentally friendly the supplier is; and what recent steps his Department has taken to reduce CO2 emissions from its energy use.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) uses theEnergy Suppliers listed below:
| Electricity | Gas | Other |
King Charles Street | EDF | EON | Whitehall District Heating |
Hanslope Park | EDF | N/A | Fuel-Oil – Certas Energy |
Lancaster House | EDF | British Gas &Corona |
|
Carlton Gardens | EDF | Corona |
|
Wilton Park | EDF & British Gas | EDF & Corona | Biomass - woodchip from The Wiston Estate Gas Oil - Pace Fuelcare |
The energy used by the FCO across its UK estate is procured using the Crown Commercial Service (CCS), apart from Fuel Oil at Wilton Park.
We endeavour to use renewable and low carbon heat where feasible, however due to operational reasons other fuel-oils are needed to supplement these.
In 2018/19 the FCO's UK energy consumption accounted for 7357 tCO2e. A focus for the FCO is to reduce the electricity consumption across its estate through a roll-out of energy efficient user IT equipment, moving towards a virtualised data centre environment, as data centre electricity accounts for around 30% of total FCO UK electricity consumption, and more widely looking into the feasibility of renewable and low carbon energy and heat across its estate.
The carbon emissions figure quoted above represents CO2 emitted from energy consumption for the FCO's UK operations, in line with our reporting for the Greening Government Commitments targets and in our annual sustainability report.
Asked by: Lord Collins of Highbury (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many individuals were refused visas to travel to the UK for Wilton Park events in 2018.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
This information requested is not published. Attending meetings, conferences and seminars are all allowed under the Visitor Rules. UKVI has in place engagement teams who can work with event organisers ahead of events to support them through visa processes. Event organisers can approach UKVI directly, we also identify organisers through engagement with other government department and external Stakeholders.
Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what progress his Department has made on implementing the recommendations of the Wilton Park statement on assisting religious minorities in humanitarian crises.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
DFID has reviewed and assessed the Wilton Park Statement on assisting religious minorities in humanitarian crises. Policy Teams will investigate how to incorporate the recommendations into their policy plans. We will continue to regularly challenge our partners to demonstrate that they are doing all they can to meet the needs of the most vulnerable people, including those from religious minorities.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Leeds (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to implement the recommendations set out in the Wilton Park Statement on assisting religious minorities in humanitarian crises, published on 9 May.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
DFID has reviewed and assessed the Wilton Park Statement on assisting religious minorities in humanitarian crises. Policy Teams will investigate how to incorporate the recommendations into their policy plans.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Leeds (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the Wilton Park Statement on assisting religious minorities in humanitarian crises, published on 9 May.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
DFID has reviewed and assessed the Wilton Park Statement on assisting religious minorities in humanitarian crises. The Wilton Park Conference brought together and found common ground between an unprecedented gathering of human rights activists, humanitarian organisations, representatives of governments and international organisations and faith groups. The statement illustrates how the different approaches can be complimentary. Whilst clearly recognising that humanitarian responses have to be guided by the principles of impartiality and assistance provided on the basis of need alone, the statement provides guidance to assist humanitarian practitioners determine whether vulnerable groups and religious minorities are most at risk and how to encourage and facilitate the participation and partnership of local and national religious communities in determining specific needs of vulnerable religious minority individuals and communities.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many properties that they own abroad have been sold by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and its agencies since 2015; and what is the total revenue that they have received from such sales.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
From April 2015 to March 2019, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) sold 62 overseas properties for a total value of £531.9m, comprising of the sale of the Bangkok compound for £426.4m in FY 2017-18, with the remaining 60 properties amounting to £105.5m. There were no sales by FCO Agencies (Wilton Park and FCO Services).
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of diplomatic relations with Kiribati.
Answered by Mark Field
The Republic of Kiribati remains a valued partner for the UK. We work closely, bilaterally and in multilateral fora.
I last met the President of Kiribati at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in London, 2018. We covered issues of mutual importance, particularly climate change and oceans. As my honourable friend will be aware, Kiribati is under significant pressure from the threat of rising sea levels. The UK’s Commonwealth Marine Economies Programme is funding a project to map Kiribati’s seabed to support new maritime infrastructure.
I have also worked with Kiribati at the United Nations General Assembly, the Pacific Island Forum and our recent UK and New Zealand Wilton Park Conference on Pacific resilience. As we continue to expand our diplomatic presence in the Pacific we expect our engagement to further increase.