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Written Question
Al-Aqsa Mosque
Wednesday 19th April 2023

Asked by: Taiwo Owatemi (Labour - Coventry North West)

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the consequences for his policies of the recent raid on the Al-Aqsa Mosque by Israeli forces.

Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

As The Foreign Secretary said in his statement on 7 April, the UK condemns Israeli police violence at the Al Aqsa Mosque. When Israeli security forces conduct operations, they must ensure they are proportionate and in accordance with international law. The UK is a strong supporter of freedom of religion or belief and calls for places of worship to be respected. We continue to value Jordan's important role as custodian of the holy sites in Jerusalem. As the subsequent rocket fire from Syria, Lebanon, and Gaza shows, incidents such as those at Al Aqsa can be the trigger for a cycle of violence.


Written Question
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
Monday 3rd April 2023

Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment her Department has made with Cabinet colleagues of the threat posed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to (a) the UK, (b) the UK's interests in the Middle East and (c) Iranians critical of the Iranian regime who are living in the UK.

Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)

We do not routinely comment on operational or intelligence matters, however the UK will always stand up to threats from foreign nations.

As I announced in my statement to the House on the 20 February, HMG have responded to 15 credible threats to kidnap or even kill UK-based individuals by the Iranian regime. We continually assess potential threats in the UK, and will continue to take the protection of individuals’ rights, freedoms, and safety in the UK very seriously.

The UK Government has been clear about its continued concerns over destabilising activity of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the UK and overseas. This includes IRGC political, financial and military support to a number of militant and proscribed groups in the region, including Hizballah in Lebanon and Syria, militias in Iraq and the Houthis in Yemen. The UK already sanctions the IRGC in its entirety and on the 20 March, 7 further individuals were sanctioned.

In concert with partners, the Home Office is leading work on countering Iranian-state threats, making use of the full breadth and expertise of the government and our extraordinary and courageous police, security, and intelligence agencies.


Written Question
State Retirement Pensions: British Nationals Abroad
Thursday 30th March 2023

Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many UK pensioners living overseas had their pensions suspended in (a) 2019, (b) 2020, (c) 2021 due to (i) non-return and (ii) late return of life certificates, broken down by country of residence.

Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury

DWP holds data relating to the late and non-return of a Life Certificate for the 2019 period, which resulted in the temporary suspension of a customer’s State Pension payments. In 2019, 26,206 claims were temporarily suspended, which is broken down by country as shown in the following table: -

Country

Number of State Pension claims temporarily suspended in 2019 due to the late or non-return of a completed Life Certificate

India

1,280

Uganda

65

Iceland

11

Costa Rica

24

Ukraine

21

Gambia

37

Jamaica

2,269

Nigeria

1,265

Venezuela

39

Sierra Leone

35

Dominican Republic

30

Ecuador

52

Greece

539

Bulgaria

256

Poland

116

Netherlands

624

Hong Kong

124

Fiji

4

Anguilla

9

Jordan

13

Montserrat

14

Malawi

4

Canada

15,798

Cook Islands

0

Norfolk Islands

3

Papua New Guinea

11

Western Samoa

2

Ascension Island

1

Lesotho

8

Dominica

277

South Korea

52

Oman

55

Lebanon

35

Romania

69

Peru

33

Serbia

63

Namibia

26

Libya

3

Tonga

4

Cape Verde Islands

5

Belarus

2

Bangladesh

473

Mauritius

125

Azerbaijan

4

Kazakhstan

2

Vietnam

74

Virgin Islands (British)

25

Estonia

10

Taiwan

19

Panama

36

Uruguay

19

Kuwait

28

Liechtenstein

6

Antilles (Netherlands)

11

St Kitts & Nevis

76

Switzerland

1,529

Brazil

164

Vanuatu

11

Bolivia

30

Cambodia

37

Nepal

26

Brunei

9

Bosnia Herzegovina

7

Ethiopia

14

Iran

14

Hungary

127

Swaziland

29

Russia

23

As a result of the outbreak of COVID in 2020, DWP suspended the Life Certificate exercise in March 2020, to ensure that our customers were not negatively impacted by any postal service issues which could have resulted in their State Pension payments being temporarily suspended. Therefore, DWP does not hold any data for this period.

DWP reintroduced the Life Certificate exercise in November 2021. Therefore, DWP does not hold any data for 2021, as any potential suspensions would be applied after 16 weeks of issue of the Life Certificate, which would mean that the suspension occurred in 2022.

The Management Information used has been taken from the same operational source data systems as our published administrative data. However, as this Management Information is not a recognised National or Official Statistic, it has not been subjected to the same level of Quality Assurance. As a result, these figures should be treated with caution.


Written Question
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
Thursday 30th March 2023

Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment her Department has made of the threat posed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to (a) the UK and its interests in the Middle East and (b) Iranians critical of the regime in the UK.

Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)

We do not routinely comment on operational or intelligence matters, however the UK will always stand up to threats from foreign nations.

As I announced in my statement to the House on the 20 February, HMG have responded to 15 credible threats to kidnap or even kill UK-based individuals by the Iranian regime. We continually assess potential threats in the UK, and will continue to take the protection of individuals’ rights, freedoms, and safety in the UK very seriously.

The UK Government has been clear about its continued concerns over destabilising activity of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the UK and overseas. This includes IRGC political, financial and military support to a number of militant and proscribed groups in the region, including Hizballah in Lebanon and Syria, militias in Iraq and the Houthis in Yemen. The UK already sanctions the IRGC in its entirety and on the 20 March, 7 further individuals were sanctioned.

In concert with partners, the Home Office is leading work on countering Iranian-state threats, making use of the full breadth and expertise of the government and our extraordinary and courageous police, security, and intelligence agencies.


Written Question
Refugees: Resettlement
Wednesday 29th March 2023

Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government which countries the 887 refugees who were granted resettlement through the UK Resettlement Scheme in 2022 come from.

Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth

The Home Office publishes data on resettlement in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’ on GOV.uk. Data on refugees resettled under the UK Resettlement Scheme by nationality and host country can be found in table Asy_D02 of the ‘asylum and resettlement detailed datasets’ on GOV.uk. Information on how to use the datasets can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbooks. The latest data relate to the year ending December 2022.

The top 5 nationalities resettled under the UK Resettlement Scheme in 2022 were Syria, Sudan, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The top 5 host countries where refugees were identified as requiring resettlement by the UNHCR in 2022 were Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan, and Iraq.


Written Question
State Retirement Pensions: British Nationals Abroad
Thursday 23rd March 2023

Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in receipt of a UK pension live in countries without a reciprocal social security agreement with the UK by (a) the country they live in and (b) their gender.

Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury

This information is published on Stat-Xplore https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk and currently extends to November 2020.

The number of people in receipt of a UK State Pension living in countries without a reciprocal social security agreement with the UK is 298,294.

The breakdown by country and gender are shown in the tables below:

Country of State Pension receipt

Male

Female

Antigua

141

166

Albania

8

7

Algeria

13

5

Andorra

91

74

Anguilla

33

48

Antilles (Netherlands)

20

19

Argentina

128

132

Aruba

..

6

Ascension Island

7

..

Australia

100,047

122,289

Bahamas

116

139

Bahrain

79

48

Bangladesh

175

795

Belize

57

38

Bolivia

17

12

Botswana

89

55

Brazil

485

284

Brunei

16

8

Burkina Faso

..

..

Burma (Myanmar)

..

..

Cameroon

6

5

Cape Verde Islands

..

6

Cayman Islands

111

78

Chile

168

141

China People's Republic

249

74

Colombia

128

127

Cook Islands

9

..

Costa Rica

65

38

Dom Commonwealth (Dominica)

217

244

Dominican Republic

26

17

Country of State Pension receipt

Male

Female

Ecuador

54

33

Egypt

189

116

El Salvador

8

5

Equatorial Guinea

..

..

Ethiopia

22

7

Falkland Islands & Dep

47

26

Faroe Islands

5

7

Fiji

63

28

French Polynesia

..

..

Gambia

44

23

Ghana

451

388

Greenland

..

..

Grenada

402

500

Guatemala

7

5

Guyana

110

101

Honduras

6

8

Hong Kong

1,510

904

India

2,145

2,113

Indonesia

314

42

Iran

21

11

Iraq

5

..

Japan

4,644

2,158

Jordan

72

46

Kampuchea

40

..

Kenya

345

305

Kuwait

10

5

Laos

19

..

Lebanon

73

49

Lesotho

6

7

Macau

7

..

Country of State Pension receipt

Male

Female

Malagasy Republic

6

5

Malawi

39

31

Malaysia

1,072

1,159

Mexico

241

228

Monaco

246

143

Montserrat

29

40

Morocco

112

70

Mozambique

9

..

Namibia

49

42

Nepal

29

13

Nevis, St Kitts-Nevis

131

148

New Caledonia

8

10

Nicaragua

15

6

Nigeria

1,090

804

Norfolk Island

..

..

Oman

71

29

Pakistan

1,103

1,579

Panama

23

14

Papua New Guinea

8

5

Paraguay

14

8

Peru

66

64

Qatar

41

15

Republic of Azerbaijan

11

..

Republic of Belarus

13

12

Republic of Georgia

19

..

Republic of Kazakhstan

12

..

Republic of Kyrgyzstan

5

..

Republic of Moldova

5

..

Republic of Yemen

172

501

Russian Federation

95

41

San Marino

..

..

Saudi Arabia

75

20

Senegal

..

8

Seychelles

73

78

Sierra Leone

18

27

Singapore

514

359

Country of State Pension receipt

Male

Female

Solomon Islands

..

..

Somalia

9

13

South Africa

12,932

17,411

South Korea

288

91

Sri Lanka

557

572

St Helena & Deps

56

48

St Lucia

376

454

St Vincents & Grenadines

221

229

Sudan

5

..

Surinam

5

..

Swaziland

42

37

Syria

5

..

Tahiti

7

..

Taiwan

88

20

Tanzania

54

23

Thailand

4,777

586

Togo

..

..

Tonga

8

6

Trinidad & Tobago

456

843

Tunisia

62

53

Turks & Caicos Islands

17

6

Uganda

47

26

Ukraine

59

33

United Arab Emirates

431

180

United States Minor Outlying Islands

..

5

Uruguay

35

27

Vanuatu

24

13

Venezuela

24

16

Vietnam

105

14

Virgin Islands (British)

28

19

Western Samoa

..

..

Zambia

79

86

Zimbabwe

311

546

Please note:

1. The ".." denotes a nil or negligible number of claimants or award amount based on a nil or negligible number of claimants.


Written Question
Iran: Hezbollah
Tuesday 7th March 2023

Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has had discussions with his Iranian counterpart on that country's financing of Hezbollah.

Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The Government condemns Iran's financial support to militant and proscribed groups, including Hizballah which compromises the region's security and escalates already high tensions, with consequences for the international community. In 2019, the UK made its position clear by proscribing Hizballah in its entirety and put an asset freeze in place due to Hizballah's terrorist activity. We support the enforcement of UN prohibitions on Iranian weapons proliferation to non-state actors, including to Hizballah (UNSCR 1701). Our assessment remains that a sovereign Lebanon with strong institutions is the best way to tackle Hizballah's influence in Lebanon.


Written Question
Syria: Refugees
Monday 6th March 2023

Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what estimate his Department has made of the number of refugees who have entered Lebanon as a result of conflict in Syria.

Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) provides authoritative assessments on displacement. It estimates there are over 6.6 million Syrian refugees worldwide, of which 5.5 million are hosted in countries near Syria, notably Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. The Lebanese Government estimates there are 1.5 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon. The Lebanese Government instructed UNHCR to suspend the new registration of refugees at the beginning of 2015 and we have urged the Lebanese government to enable refugee registration by UNHCR to resume. Accurate registration of refugees facilitates international support and is in everyone's interest.


Written Question
Lebanon: Explosions
Thursday 2nd March 2023

Asked by: Lord Bishop of Southwark (Bishops - Bishops)

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will ask the UN Human Rights Council to undertake a fact-finding mission concerning the blast at the Port of Beirut on 4 August 2020.

Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

From the outset, the British government called on Lebanon's leaders to urgently and transparently investigate the blast and to hold to account those responsible. We continue to lobby the Lebanese authorities on the importance of a credible and transparent investigation. There must be full accountability and those responsible for any criminal wrongdoing should face justice, and if any multilateral initiatives are brought forward we will engage constructively on them.


Written Question
UNRWA: Finance
Monday 20th February 2023

Asked by: Brendan O'Hara (Scottish National Party - Argyll and Bute)

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he plans to increase his Department's funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.

Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

We are longstanding supporters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). We recognise that UNRWA needs to be on a more secure financial footing to ensure that Palestinian refugees' basic needs are met. To that end, the UK is working with UNRWA and other donors to help ensure its sustainability. In the financial year 2022/2023, the UK provided UNRWA with £18.7 million, including £13 million for UNRWA's programme budget for spend in OPTs, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria; £2 million for work in Gaza and £3.7 million for food assistance - both under UNRWA's OPTs emergency appeal. Decisions on funding for FY 23/24 have not yet been finalised.