Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Benyon on 9 February (HL1962), why they do not track and disaggregate discrete spend for abortion services, as part of the wider package of women's healthcare, in respect of development monies disbursed in Africa.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK has a strong portfolio of Comprehensive Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) programming globally, which includes abortion services. We report our spend, according to the OECD Development and Assistance Committee (DAC) sector codes, in our annual Statistics on International Development publications [https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-on-international-development].
Comprehensive SRHR spend spans across various OECD DAC codes and we do not record data for SRHR services separately. Some civil society partners have developed methodologies to provide an estimate of the UK's SRHR spend.
Individual FCDO programmes record deliverables and results on SRHR. This data along with individual programme finances can be found on the Devtracker website: [https://devtracker.fcdo.gov.uk/.] SRHR results are likely to be reported as a comprehensive service against sector approved indicators and metrics, rather than for individual services such as abortion.
Asked by: Baroness Northover (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to achieve universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights as per Sustainable Development Goal target 5.6.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The White Paper on International Development reaffirmed the UK's commitment to deploy policy and investment to advance and strongly defend universal access to comprehensive Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) in line with Sustainable Development Goal target 5.6.
The UK Government is committed to driving progress and demonstrating leadership on SRHR globally as a major donor, through our diplomatic network and in collaboration with partners. For example, the UNFPA Supplies Partnership averted 8 million unintended pregnancies, 2.2 million unsafe abortion and 170,000 maternal and child deaths in 2022, with the UK as their largest donor. The Women's Integrated Sexual Health (WISH) Programme supported 9.5 million women to use modern methods of contraception and averted over 45,000 maternal deaths, 5 million unsafe abortions and over 16 million unintended pregnancies from the programme's inception to 2021. In May 2023, the UK joined other G7 leaders in re-asserting the critical role of comprehensive SRHR in our efforts to achieve gender equality, explicitly recognising the need for access to safe and legal abortion as well as post abortion care.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what recent steps he has taken to help end female genital mutilation in (a) Sierra Leone and (b) other African states.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
We advocate for a comprehensive approach to eliminating Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) that includes prevention and access to services. In Sierra Leone, we support the sexual and reproductive health rights of women and girls and their education. We tackle sexual gender-based violence by providing grants to survivor-led movements and changing societal beliefs and behaviours that underpin FGM through work with women and girl led civil society organisations. Globally, the UK has supported the Africa-Led Movement to End FGM since 2013 and is providing £35 million between 2019 and 2027 to grassroots African organisations leading change within communities. We also provide funding to the UN Joint Programme on the Elimination of FGM which works with 17 national governments in Africa.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of public monies paid to Marie Stopes International to subsidise abortions carried out in (1) Kenya, and (2) each of the other African nations, over the past ten years; from what budget this was allocated; which Ministers authorised it; and what proportion of the total of UK aid delivered for these procedures in each of these countries such expenditure through Marie Stopes represented.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We report spend in line with Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Development and Assistance Committee sector codes which do not track spend specifically for abortion services which are part of a wider package of women's healthcare. FCDO support to safe abortion services is within what is permitted by national laws, as well as providing life-saving treatment for women who have had unsafe abortions.
MSI Reproductive choices is an important partner for the FCDO's comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) work, including on our Women's Integrated Sexual Health Programme in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The FCDO annually reports on Official Development Assistance (ODA) expenditure via the Statistics on International Development publications [https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-on-international-development]. All of our programmatic spend data can be found on the Devtracker website [https://devtracker.fcdo.gov.uk/]
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much her Department plans to allocate to the Reproductive Health, Sexual Health and HIV Innovation Fund in the 2024-25 financial year.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Reproductive Health, Sexual Health and HIV Innovation Fund is a competitive grant scheme first started by Public Health England (PHE) which aimed to encourage local innovation to reduce the impact of HIV and improve sexual and reproductive health in England, with the first four cohorts addressing HIV only. The following table outlines the funding received for the seven cohorts which have taken place since the scheme began:
Year | Funding (£) |
2015/2016 (Cohort 1) | 501,463 |
2016/2017 (Cohort 2) | 629,844 |
2017/2018 (Cohort 3) | 574,030 |
2018/2019 (Cohort 4) | 603,418 |
2019/2020 (Cohort 5) | 605,102 |
2020/2021 (Cohort 6) | 301,764 |
2021/2022 (Cohort 7) | 290,129 |
Funding was paused for 2022/2023 to allow for the publication of an independent review. In January 2023, Ipsos Mori published the findings from an overarching independent impact evaluation of the Innovation Fund which is available at the following link:
No funding was provided for 2023/2024, and a decision has not yet been made regarding funding for 2024/2025.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much her Department has allocated to the Reproductive Health, Sexual Health and HIV Innovation Fund in the 2023-24 financial year.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Reproductive Health, Sexual Health and HIV Innovation Fund is a competitive grant scheme first started by Public Health England (PHE) which aimed to encourage local innovation to reduce the impact of HIV and improve sexual and reproductive health in England, with the first four cohorts addressing HIV only. The following table outlines the funding received for the seven cohorts which have taken place since the scheme began:
Year | Funding (£) |
2015/2016 (Cohort 1) | 501,463 |
2016/2017 (Cohort 2) | 629,844 |
2017/2018 (Cohort 3) | 574,030 |
2018/2019 (Cohort 4) | 603,418 |
2019/2020 (Cohort 5) | 605,102 |
2020/2021 (Cohort 6) | 301,764 |
2021/2022 (Cohort 7) | 290,129 |
Funding was paused for 2022/2023 to allow for the publication of an independent review. In January 2023, Ipsos Mori published the findings from an overarching independent impact evaluation of the Innovation Fund which is available at the following link:
No funding was provided for 2023/2024, and a decision has not yet been made regarding funding for 2024/2025.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much her Department has provided for the HIV Innovation Fund in each year since 2015.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Reproductive Health, Sexual Health and HIV Innovation Fund is a competitive grant scheme first started by Public Health England (PHE) which aimed to encourage local innovation to reduce the impact of HIV and improve sexual and reproductive health in England, with the first four cohorts addressing HIV only. The following table outlines the funding received for the seven cohorts which have taken place since the scheme began:
Year | Funding (£) |
2015/2016 (Cohort 1) | 501,463 |
2016/2017 (Cohort 2) | 629,844 |
2017/2018 (Cohort 3) | 574,030 |
2018/2019 (Cohort 4) | 603,418 |
2019/2020 (Cohort 5) | 605,102 |
2020/2021 (Cohort 6) | 301,764 |
2021/2022 (Cohort 7) | 290,129 |
Funding was paused for 2022/2023 to allow for the publication of an independent review. In January 2023, Ipsos Mori published the findings from an overarching independent impact evaluation of the Innovation Fund which is available at the following link:
No funding was provided for 2023/2024, and a decision has not yet been made regarding funding for 2024/2025.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the findings were of the independent review of the impact of the Sexual Health, Reproductive Health and HIV Innovation Fund.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Reproductive Health, Sexual Health and HIV Innovation Fund is a competitive grant scheme first started by Public Health England (PHE) which aimed to encourage local innovation to reduce the impact of HIV and improve sexual and reproductive health in England, with the first four cohorts addressing HIV only. The following table outlines the funding received for the seven cohorts which have taken place since the scheme began:
Year | Funding (£) |
2015/2016 (Cohort 1) | 501,463 |
2016/2017 (Cohort 2) | 629,844 |
2017/2018 (Cohort 3) | 574,030 |
2018/2019 (Cohort 4) | 603,418 |
2019/2020 (Cohort 5) | 605,102 |
2020/2021 (Cohort 6) | 301,764 |
2021/2022 (Cohort 7) | 290,129 |
Funding was paused for 2022/2023 to allow for the publication of an independent review. In January 2023, Ipsos Mori published the findings from an overarching independent impact evaluation of the Innovation Fund which is available at the following link:
No funding was provided for 2023/2024, and a decision has not yet been made regarding funding for 2024/2025.
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what recent steps he has taken to support women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The UK's new White Paper on International Development sets out our commitments on educating girls, empowering women and girls, and championing their health and rights and ending gender-based violence. The UK is working with African partners to tackle gender inequality and stand up for the rights of women and girls. The UK will also spend up to £200 million on a new women's sexual and reproductive health and rights programme, focused on sub-Saharan Africa, which will reach up to 10.4 million women.
Asked by: Baroness Northover (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, ahead of the 30-year review of the International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action, what progress they have made since 1994 on sexual and reproductive health and rights in the UK.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are proud of the United Kingdom’s progress regarding sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in the last thirty years and of our country’s leadership as the top performing country in SRHR policies according to the European Combined SRHR Ranking Atlas 2020-2023.
In Great Britain, women have access to safe, regulated National Health Service-funded termination of pregnancy services under the Abortion Act 1967. Abortion was decriminalised in Northern Ireland through the introduction of the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc.) Act 2019. Health is devolved in the UK, and progress on SRHR in England has included several areas of SRHR.
Contraception plays a vital role in preventing unintended pregnancy and a wide range of contraceptive choices are available free of charge in a range of primary and community care venues in England, including through the NHS Pharmacy Contraception Service since April 2023. The conception rate amongst women under 18 years old in England is now lower than it was twenty years ago and has more than halved between 2011 and 2021. The conception rate for those aged under 16 years old is approximately a third of what it was 10 years ago.
The 2022 Women’s Health Strategy for England sets out our plans for boosting the health and wellbeing of women and girls, and for improving how the health and care system engages and listens to all women. This includes investing £25 million in women’s health hubs to improve women’s access to essential services for menstrual problems, contraception, menopause care and more.
Local authorities in England are responsible for commissioning comprehensive open access to most sexual health services (SHSs) through the public health grant funded at £3.5 billion in 2023/24. Individual local authorities are well placed to make funding and commissioning decisions about the SHSs that best meet the needs of their local populations. This includes oral HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis, which has been routinely available in specialist SHSs since 2020.
The National Chlamydia Screening Programme focuses on reducing reproductive harm of untreated infection in young women aged 15 to 24 years old. The programme has the secondary aims of reducing re-infections and onward transmission of chlamydia and raising awareness of good sexual health.
Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a very common sexually transmitted infection, and some types can cause genital warts or cervical cancer. The national HPV vaccination programme was introduced for girls in September 2008 and extended to eligible boys in September 2019. In 2022, genital warts diagnoses among young women aged between 15 and 17 years old attending SHSs were 67.9% lower than in 2018.
The HIV Action Plan is the cornerstone of our approach in England to drive forward progress and achieve our goal to end new HIV transmissions, AIDS and HIV-related deaths within England by 2030 backed by almost £45m over 2020-2025. We continue to celebrate the progress made from 2019 when the Government first made its HIV commitments, with approximately 4,500 people living with undiagnosed HIV and extremely high levels of antiretroviral therapy coverage and viral suppression.