Baroness Sugg

The Government is determined to see the proceeds from the sale of Chelsea Football Club reach humanitarian causes in Ukraine, following Russia's illegal full-scale invasion.

We are deeply frustrated that it has not been possible to reach agreement on this with Mr Abramovich so far.

While the door for negotiations will remain open, we are fully prepared to pursue this matter through the courts if required, to ensure people suffering in Ukraine receive the benefit from these proceeds as soon as possible.

The UK is proud to support universal and comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) for all. This includes support to address the additional barriers faced by adolescents and young people to ensure they can access the information, services and advice they need. The UK works in partnership with governments, civil society and community groups to do so. For example, in December 2024 the Prime Minister announced the Grassroots and Counter Rollback programme which aims to strengthen civil society organisations and movements to counter misinformation and expand access to SRHR.

The UK continues to provide strong political leadership in multilateral fora. We work to protect and progress language relating to adolescents' SRHR, including comprehensive sexuality education and family planning education. Meaningful engagement of young people is also a priority, and this year we will again include a young person as part of the UK delegation to the United Nations Commission on Population and Development.

The UK is committed to promoting and defending universal and comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) including safe abortion. The UK firmly believes that supporting comprehensive SRHR through proven evidence based public health interventions saves lives and supports prosperity. We will continue to work with our partners, including UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and World Health Organisation (WHO), governments and civil society partners to deliver this and to ensure UK Aid programmes remain free of conditions that would restrict the freedom, rights and choices of women and girls.

The UK will continue to engage with other donor nations to progress and promote SRHR and work to diversify funding for key agencies.

In April, we will be holding a UK- UNFPA Strategic Dialogue as part of which we will discuss how we can best support their efforts towards long-term sustainable financing. This is also something we prioritise through our ODA investments, for example, through UK support to the UNFPA Supplies Partnership, we promote the mobilisation of countries' own domestic resources for reproductive health. The UK was also a key supporter of WHO's recent Investment Round pledging up to £310 million in flexible core voluntary contributions to support the WHO's work for the next 4 years (2024-2028). Flexible funding enables WHO to respond effectively to emerging health threats and priorities, by allocating resources where they are needed most and we encourage other donors to also provide predictable, flexible multi-year support.

The UK has supported efforts to advance sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in post-conflict areas of the Bangsamoro region, recognising that gender equality is essential to sustainable peace. The Integrated Security Fund Philippines programme has contributed to the development of the Bangsamoro Gender and Development Code and the Gender Ombud Guidelines, supported awareness-raising initiatives to end harmful practices such as child marriage, and worked with communities to strengthen the capacity of women's desks to provide better support for survivors of gender-based violence. The UK has also engaged with UNFPA to discuss how they can protect and promote SRHR in the Philippines further.

The UK is working to tackle the barriers to accessing quality education that are faced by adolescent girls with disabilities, through our education policy and programmes.

In countries like Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe, UK development assistance has supported the implementation of disability-inclusive pedagogy in classrooms, funded assistive devices, and provided technical assistance to ministries of education, to develop and implement inclusive education policies. We are growing our understanding of what works to support learners with disabilities through our Disability Inclusive Development Programme.

At the Global Disability Summit in April 2025, the UK will reinforce its commitment to galvanising international efforts on disability inclusion, including specific actions on inclusive education, and will launch the refresh of our Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Disability Inclusion and Rights strategy.

Ensuring that 'honour'-based abuse (HBA) is well understood by frontline professionals, Government agencies, and impacted communities, is essential to preventing abuse, supporting victims and bringing perpetrators to justice.

Currently there is a definition of HBA used by the Criminal Justice System, but we recognise there is more that can be done to raise the level of consistency of understanding regarding HBA in Government and beyond and we are aware of the proposals for a statutory definition of HBA.

On 6 February 2025, the Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls hosted a roundtable on HBA which was attended by multiple Government departments and specialist sector organisations, including Karma Nirvana. The question of what a statutory definition could look like was discussed at length. Home Office officials are working through the next steps following that discussion.