Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an estimate of the number of police forces investigating crimes where the alleged victim is an unaccompanied child who was accommodated in, or went missing from, a Home Office operated hotel.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
This information is held by the individual encountering police forces but is not held or collated centrally.
Asked by: Kirsten Oswald (Scottish National Party - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what support the Government provides to children forcibly displaced from Sudan to third countries.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
On 4 May, the Government announced £5 million of life-saving aid to help meet the urgent needs of refugees and returnees in South Sudan and Chad who have fled the violence in Sudan. The UK aims to protect and prioritise the most vulnerable people when crises occur. In South Sudan, £1.5 million was allocated to World Food Programme (WFP) for food in border areas, and £500,000 to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) for Gender Based Violence protection services. In Chad, £1.5 million was allocated to WFP to preposition food before seasonal floods, and £1 million to the Sahel Regional Fund to support urgent assistance and protection by NGOs. The UN Central Emergency Response Fund and the Red Cross Disaster Response Emergency Fund, and START Fund, all of which the UK contributes to, have activated for Sudan and the region to provide assistance to those in desperate need.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what support his Department is providing to Lebanon.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Lebanon is experiencing a severe economic and humanitarian crisis. Since 2011, the UK has provided over £850 million in humanitarian, development, and stabilisation assistance in Lebanon. This includes providing non-formal education services to over 150,000 vulnerable children, and humanitarian cash assistance to over 160,000 Syrian refugees and supporting Lebanese communities hosting refugees to improve infrastructure and services. The UK is also a long-standing supporter of the Lebanese Armed Forces and Internal Security Forces to maintain Lebanon's security internally and on its borders. We will continue to support the most vulnerable but is clear that Lebanon's leaders must deliver economic reforms to alleviate the crisis and set the country on a path to long-term economic stability.
Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what background information is given to schools about the situation in the home countries of pupils who have arrived in the UK as asylum seekers or refugees.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department does not provide information on the situation in other countries to schools educating children who are asylum seekers and refugees.
The circumstances for civilians in many conflict zones are widely reported upon in the media and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office publishes brief profiles for each foreign nation. These profiles can be found at: https://www.data.gov.uk/dataset/6e1f22a9-feb9-49d8-8e61-8fc19764480a/fco-country-profiles.
Asked by: Lord Hylton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what support they provide, if any, towards the implementation of the UNHCR-UNICEF Blueprint for Joint Action for Refugee Children.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
The UK continues to prioritise education for refugee children through our work in emergencies and protracted crises, with our support through Education Cannot Wait and the Global Partnership for Education contributing to the blueprint's objectives.
In 2022 the UK provided £33m to UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and £24m to UNICEF, the UN Children's Fund, in core contributions. This includes support for the implementation of the UNHCR-UNICEF Blueprint for Joint Action for Refugee Children.
The UK gives UNHCR and UNICEF the flexibility to direct funding where it is needed most through the high proportion of unearmarked funding provided from our core contributions, including to the three priority sectors under the blueprint of Education; WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene); and child protection
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when the Government plans to respond to the Children’s Commissioner’s letter of 5 April 2023 requesting information on unaccompanied child refugees who have been accommodated in hotels by her Department since July 2021.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Home Office officials continue to work collaboratively with the Children’s Commissioner’s Office in response to this request for information. We have introduced weekly meetings to provide the Children’s Commissioner’s office with progress updates directly and I have personally met with the Children’s Commissioner twice. We will continue to work through the required legislative and legal processes to ensure this request is managed in the right way which is essential when answering a request of this sensitivity and size.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what support he is providing to refugees in countries neighbouring Sudan.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
On 4 May, the UK Government announced an initial £5 million allocation to help meet the urgent needs of tens of thousands of refugees and returnees in South Sudan and Chad. This support will benefit the United Nation's Children Fund, the World Food Programme and non-governmental organisations. We will continue to monitor the situation in Sudan closely, including the humanitarian and security impacts of the conflict on neighbouring countries.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace in encouraging people-to-people peacebuilding programs.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
There is already a range of UK aid-funded development programming in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, outside of what the UK may do in the future with this fund, which works to preserve the prospect of a negotiated two-state solution. The UK is a key donor to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), providing essential humanitarian support to Palestinian refugees across its five zones of operation. Our annual contribution to their programme budget helps UNRWA provide education to over 533,000 children a year (half of them girls), and access to health services for 3.5 million Palestinian refugees.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
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 potential merits of UK involvement in the International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
There is already a range of UK aid-funded development programming in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, outside of what the UK may do in the future with this fund, which works to preserve the prospect of a negotiated two-state solution. The UK is a key donor to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), providing essential humanitarian support to Palestinian refugees across its five zones of operation. Our annual contribution to their programme budget helps UNRWA provide education to over 533,000 children a year (half of them girls), and access to health services for 3.5 million Palestinian refugees.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment has she made of the impact of moving refugees (a) based in York and (b) based in York with children attending York schools from their settled location on their social and emotional wellbeing.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
I can confirm that the Home Office currently does not have any Afghan bridging hotels in York.