Asked by: Baroness Helic (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they (1) have deployed, or (2) intend to deploy, an expert team to Sudan’s neighbouring countries to assist in (a) responding to, and (b) investigating reports of, gender-based violence in Sudan; and if so, what is that team's mandate.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
There has been an escalation of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) against women and girls in Sudan since 15 April. These crimes take place in a broader context human rights violations since the military coup on 25 October 2021, with a further escalation in incidents since 15 April. The UK has consistently condemned these in our public statements, at the UN Human Rights Council and Security Council, and in our diplomatic lobbying. We continue to fund and provide support to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Sudan that provides a crucial role in monitoring and reporting on human rights violations. We are liaising closely with them as they now set up and run their remote working mechanisms. Through the Women's Integrated Sexual Health programme, we are also providing integrated sexual and reproductive services, and provisions of family planning and management of SGBV through 262 facilities, 302 private facilities and 11 mobile health teams to reach the most inaccessible communities, although sadly these programmes are suspended since the 15 April onset of conflict. On 4 May, the UK announced a £5 million initial package of humanitarian support to help address the urgent needs of people fleeing violence in Sudan, with £2.5 million allocated to Chad and £2 million to South Sudan. In South Sudan, £500,000 was allocated to UNICEF for gender-based Violence protection services. The UK is working with its partners to ensure strong gender and inclusion conflict analyses underpin all aspects of the crisis response.
Asked by: Baroness Helic (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what recent initiatives or programmes they (1) have funded, and (2) are aware of, to combat gender-based violence in Sudan.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
There has been an escalation of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) against women and girls in Sudan since 15 April. These crimes take place in a broader context human rights violations since the military coup on 25 October 2021, with a further escalation in incidents since 15 April. The UK has consistently condemned these in our public statements, at the UN Human Rights Council and Security Council, and in our diplomatic lobbying. We continue to fund and provide support to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Sudan that provides a crucial role in monitoring and reporting on human rights violations. We are liaising closely with them as they now set up and run their remote working mechanisms. Through the Women's Integrated Sexual Health programme, we are also providing integrated sexual and reproductive services, and provisions of family planning and management of SGBV through 262 facilities, 302 private facilities and 11 mobile health teams to reach the most inaccessible communities, although sadly these programmes are suspended since the 15 April onset of conflict. On 4 May, the UK announced a £5 million initial package of humanitarian support to help address the urgent needs of people fleeing violence in Sudan, with £2.5 million allocated to Chad and £2 million to South Sudan. In South Sudan, £500,000 was allocated to UNICEF for gender-based Violence protection services. The UK is working with its partners to ensure strong gender and inclusion conflict analyses underpin all aspects of the crisis response.
Asked by: Baroness Helic (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking, and intend to take, in response to reports of gender-based violence in Sudan.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
There has been an escalation of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) against women and girls in Sudan since 15 April. These crimes take place in a broader context human rights violations since the military coup on 25 October 2021, with a further escalation in incidents since 15 April. The UK has consistently condemned these in our public statements, at the UN Human Rights Council and Security Council, and in our diplomatic lobbying. We continue to fund and provide support to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Sudan that provides a crucial role in monitoring and reporting on human rights violations. We are liaising closely with them as they now set up and run their remote working mechanisms. Through the Women's Integrated Sexual Health programme, we are also providing integrated sexual and reproductive services, and provisions of family planning and management of SGBV through 262 facilities, 302 private facilities and 11 mobile health teams to reach the most inaccessible communities, although sadly these programmes are suspended since the 15 April onset of conflict. On 4 May, the UK announced a £5 million initial package of humanitarian support to help address the urgent needs of people fleeing violence in Sudan, with £2.5 million allocated to Chad and £2 million to South Sudan. In South Sudan, £500,000 was allocated to UNICEF for gender-based Violence protection services. The UK is working with its partners to ensure strong gender and inclusion conflict analyses underpin all aspects of the crisis response.
Asked by: Baroness Northover (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will restore the four per cent of UK official development assistance for sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
Comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) is central to achieving FCDO commitments in the International Development Strategy, our approach to end the preventable deaths of mothers, new-borns and children by 2030 and the International Women and Girls Strategy.
The FCDO ensures the aid budget is directed towards our priorities, delivers value for the taxpayer and meets the UK Government's commitment to spend 0.5 per cent of Gross National Income (GNI) on Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) until the fiscal situation allows a return to 0.7 per cent. The International Development Strategy, which includes comprehensive SRHR, will guide aid prioritisation decisions, alongside the International Women and Girls Strategy. We will update on planned allocations for this spending review period in due course.
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 prioritise (1) sexual and reproductive health, and (2) the rights of women and girls, in the allocation of official development assistance to developing countries.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
The UK is proud to defend and promote universal and comprehensive sexual and reproductive rights (SRHR). We are committed to working with our partners to drive progress and demonstrate leadership on SRHR on the global stage and in our programmes. This includes the recent announcement that up to £200 million will be delivered towards the Women's Integrated Sexual Health (WISH) Dividend programme focussed between 2024-29 on sub-Saharan Africa, which has the highest rates of maternal mortality, neonatal deaths and unmet need for family planning in the world.
In March 2023, the FCDO published the UK's International Women and Girls Strategy which sets out our plan to promote and defend the rights of women and girls. In this, we committed to ensure that at least 80% of FCDO's bilateral aid programmes should have a focus on gender equality, using OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) markers, by 2030.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much funding his Department provided for sexual and reproductive health and rights through (a) bilateral and (b) multilateral aid in (i) 2020, (ii) 2021 and (iii) 2022.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
Based on the "Statistics on International Development: final UK aid spend 2021", and the Sexual Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) spend methodology laid out in the "Donor Delivering for SRHR" 2022 report:
a/ The total amount of UK Official Development Assistance (ODA) SRHR funding disbursed by bilateral aid was:
i/ £372 million in 2020,
ii/ £242 million in 2021
iii/ UK ODA figures beyond December 2021 are not yet available, estimates for 2022 spending will be available in autumn 2023.
b/ The total amount of UK ODA SRHR funding disbursed by core multilateral aid was:
i/ £185 million in 2020. Please note we previously provided a lower figure of £142 million; 2019 SRHR attribution coefficients were applied erroneously to 2020 spend figures. This has now been corrected.
ii/ SRHR attribution coefficient for multilateral aid beyond 2020 are not available yet, they will be published in the next "Donor Delivering for SRHR" 2023 report.
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, what discussions he has had with his counterpart in El Salvador regarding the decriminalisation of abortion in that country.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
As outlined in the recently released Women and Girls Strategy, the UK supports women's comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights globally, including access to safe abortion. While the Secretary of State has had no recent discussions with his counterpart in El Salvador regarding the decriminalisation of abortion in that country, in multilateral settings we continue to recommend that El Salvador review laws criminalising the use of abortion, ensure access to sexual and reproductive health services and support for all women and girls, and guarantee women are not criminally prosecuted for suffering a miscarriage.
Asked by: Baroness Barker (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to achieve gender parity in their HIV response, to ensure there is equitable (1) investment, (2) priority, and (3) attention, to women in HIV (a) prevention, (b) research, (c) data, and (d) services, in the UK.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Ensuring everyone benefits equally from HIV developments is the cornerstone of our approach in England to achieve our ambitions to end new HIV transmissions, AIDS- and HIV-related deaths by 2030, as set out in our HIV Action Plan, available in an online-only format.
As part of the Plan, NHS England is investing £20 million from 2022-2025 to support the expansion of opt-out HIV testing in emergency departments in local authority areas with extremely high prevalence of HIV. We are also investing more than £3.5 million from 2021-2024 to deliver the National HIV Prevention Programme which supports communities who are disproportionately affected by HIV, including black African heterosexual women.
The UK Health Security Agency published a HIV Action Plan monitoring and evaluation report in 2022, which tracks progress across priority actions and identifies further efforts needed across the system to improve equitable access to HIV services for key population groups, including women. We continue working together with our delivery partners to ensure equity in prevention, treatment, and HIV care, and we are developing a plan to improve equitable access to the HIV prevention drug PrEP for key groups, including women.
Local authorities in England are responsible for commissioning comprehensive open access to most sexual and reproductive health services, including HIV prevention, testing and access to PrEP, through the Public Health Grant, funded at £3.5 billion in 2023-24. It is for individual local authorities to decide their spending priorities based on an assessment of local need and to commission the service lines that best suit their population.
The Department also funds research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), which recently published an equality, diversity and inclusion strategy, setting out how NIHR will become a more inclusive funder of research and widen access to participation, including for women.
Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to tackle chlamydia in the UK.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The aim of England’s National Chlamydia Screening Programme (NCSP) is to reduce the health harms caused by untreated chlamydia infection in women by ensuring all eligible women under the age of 25 years old are offered a chlamydia test.
UK Health Security Agency works with providers and commissioners of sexual and reproductive health services to implement the NCSP, monitor levels of chlamydia testing and diagnoses through our national surveillance systems and evaluate the impact of chlamydia screening on health outcomes.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to UK funding for the UNFPA (a) how much in total is allocated to projects in Myanmar and (b) if he will list those projects.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK is a leading healthcare donor in Myanmar, supporting life-saving maternal, newborn and child healthcare needs. Since 2019 the UK has contributed approximately over £3.2 million to Myanmar through The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). This includes funding UNFPA's multi-donor ACCESS to Health Fund project which provides technical support on sexual and reproductive health. It also includes developing the Gender Based Violence Minimum Standards Helpline in Burmese and English.