Asked by: Earl of Dundee (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the EU to seek an increase in the size of EUFOR's current mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to achieve enough soldiers to deter secessionist forces in that country.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
In November, the UK worked with partners in the United Nations Security Council to secure the EUFOR stabilisation force's mandate for a further 12 months. Although the UK no longer participates in EUFOR following our withdrawal from the European Union, we liaise closely with Commander EUFOR and his team. We also support the NATO HQ in Sarajevo including though the secondment of UK staff officers, who are building the capacity of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Armed Forces. At the NATO Foreign Minister's Meeting in Riga, the Foreign Secretary called on Allies to enhance NATO's engagement on BiH.
Asked by: Earl of Dundee (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they intend to take to maintain peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region; and what plans they have to work with Council of Europe member states as part of their efforts.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
The UK takes seriously talk of secession and other threats to undo the progress of the last twenty-six years in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). We have called on those responsible to cease this destabilising and divisive rhetoric. As a UN Security Council and Peace Implementation Council Steering Board member, the UK is committed to upholding the General Framework Agreement for Peace in BiH. The recent appointment of Sir Stuart Peach as the Prime Minister's Special Envoy to the Western Balkans is a clear indication of our commitment. The UK works closely with our partners to support BiH's territorial integrity and to maintain the peace stabilisation force (EUFOR) and the Office of the High Representative in BiH. We work closely with various multinational bodies such as the CoE, NATO, OSCE and UN. Ultimately, the authorities in BiH themselves must make necessary reforms for the good of all citizens, and we call on them to meet their obligations to those who elected them. Discussions of how to support stability in BiH took place at the NATO Foreign Ministers' meeting in Riga, which the Foreign Secretary attended, and at Lancaster House on 13 December, when the Foreign Secretary hosted Western Balkans Foreign Ministers.
Asked by: Earl of Dundee (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to encourage the international community to invite Bosnia and Herzegovina's adjacent states to join NATO interventions, particularly (1) Croatia, and (2) Slovenia.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
The UK remains committed to ensuring peace and upholding international law in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). Slovenia is a member of EUFOR, has personnel at NATO HQ in Sarajevo, and contributes to NATO's KFOR mission in Kosovo. Croatia also has military personnel in KFOR. In recent weeks, there have been a range of productive discussions on the Western Balkans in multilateral fora, including at the NATO Foreign Ministers' meeting in Riga, which the Foreign Secretary attended.
Asked by: Earl of Dundee (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to support online learning initiatives at local and national level in the UK; and what plans they have to promote online learning at the Global Education Summit on 28–29 July.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
Technology in education has been essential for continuing to teach remotely during the COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent school and college closures. Technology also has the potential to support teacher workload reductions, flexible working, cost savings, effective teaching and improved pupil outcomes. We are building on the department’s significant investment in devices, platforms, training and digital services to develop a sustainable strategy for digital technology in education.
The department launched the first phase of the EdTech Demonstrator programme in April 2020. The Demonstrators are a network of schools and colleges which were initially funded in the 2020/21 financial year to provide peer-to-peer support on making the best use of technology to support remote teaching during the COVID-19 outbreak.
During phase one of the programme, the Demonstrator network provided bespoke support, meeting the individual training needs of over 4,000 schools and colleges, with over 11,000 more accessing live weekly webinars and tutorials.
The programme will continue into the 2021/22 financial year and will include support to schools and colleges to develop a sustainable digital strategy that supports wider school and college improvement drives. Schools and colleges can request support from the demonstrators via the programme website: https://edtechdemo.ucst.uk/.
From September 2021, we continue to expect schools to provide remote education for pupils whose attendance would be contrary to government guidance or legislation around COVID-19. Schools should, therefore, maintain their capabilities to deliver high quality remote education for next academic year.
A comprehensive package of support continues to be available to schools and further education institutions to help them meet our expectations for remote education, accessible at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/get-help-with-remote-education.
To support the hard work of schools in delivering remote education, Oak National Academy was very quickly brought together by over 40 teachers, their schools and other education organisations. The department has made £4.84 million available for Oak National Academy both for the summer term of the academic year 2019/20, and then for the 2020/21 academic year, to provide video lessons in a broad range of subjects for Reception up to year 11. Specialist content for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities is also available. Since the start of the spring term 2021, over 98 million Oak National Academy lessons have been viewed.
The department has now committed a further £2.1 million to Oak National Academy, enabling it to operate from the start of the next academic year through to Easter 2022.
My right hon. Friend, the Minister of State for School Standards, has agreed to meet overseas education ministers attending the Global Education Partnership Summit to share policy experience and best practice in raising standards, and discuss approaches for education recovery. These meetings will provide an opportunity to highlight the department’s work such as Oak National Academy, and we expect overseas ministers, particularly from developing countries, to be interested in learning more about our approach.
Asked by: Earl of Dundee (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the competition to identify partnerships between UK and French places launched by the British Embassy in Paris in 2019, what plans they have to encourage such partnerships between places in the UK and places in the other member states of the Council of Europe.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK places great value on the role of the Council of Europe (CoE) in advancing work on human rights, democracy and the rule of law across Europe. International partnerships provide a significant contribution towards this objective and the UK Government welcomes such activity. Examples of partnerships between the UK and France and Italy were shared in answers to PQs HL479 and HL430. There are plans to work with local authorities to promote business in Germany. In Poland, we are seeking to work with cities, regional and local authorities on a number of economic issues, including trade and investment and climate change. Additionally, the British Embassy in Dublin's "Joining the Dots" programme, launched in November 2018, promotes economic links between regions of the UK and the South West and West of Ireland.
Asked by: Earl of Dundee (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what results have so far been achieved through the seven partnerships between UK and French places launched by the British Embassy in Paris in 2019.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The "France-United Kingdom: for strengthened cooperation between our local authorities" competition launched in 2019, reflecting the UK's support for local cooperation with France. The relationship between our two countries goes far beyond London and Paris, spanning a wide range of issues from trade to science and culture. That is why, following the first UK France Mayors Summit in 2019, the British Embassy in Paris made available £22,000 to fund three innovative and impactful projects (four others were funded by the French government).
The UK fund supported:
· A workshop between Greater Manchester and Montpellier. A delegation from Greater Manchester local authority visited and met Montpellier's local elected officials to combine their international expertise on health innovation, particularly for an ageing community. The visit led to further exchanges between the municipal teams.
· A partnership between Glasgow and Marseille. The project was led by Theatrum Mundi, a London-based professional network of urbanists and artists. The project aimed to build links between Glasgow and Marseille around shared challenges in the way culture is supported by urban planning. The project led to the publication of a report collecting their findings following a two-week research project in both cities.
· A partnership between Kent County Council and Pas de Calais department. This project launched a new interregional committee led by the two local authorities to support resilience and prosperity in the areas surrounding Calais and Dover. It was the first major regional cross-border cooperation event. The project led to the creation of a this new platform to discuss shared issues, challenges and areas of further cooperation.
Asked by: Earl of Dundee (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, along with local authorities, (1) to promote, and (2) to further enable, international partnerships with Council of Europe member states, as part of their future international trading strategy.
Answered by Lord Grimstone of Boscobel
The Department for International Trade develops and maintains close links across the United Kingdom on trade and investment objectives. We support businesses to seize opportunities worldwide through our network of British High Commissions, Embassies and Consulates in countries that are members of the Council of Europe.
In addition, we seek to identify and remove market access barriers, drive inward investment, and implement the United Kingdom’s trade agreements to promote and enable bilateral trade with countries around the globe, including with members of the Council of Europe.
Asked by: Earl of Dundee (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the contribution of international partnerships between different cities and regions towards (1) regional stability, and (2) local democracy, within regions and communities of Council of Europe member states.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK places great value on the role of the Council of Europe (CoE) in advancing work on human rights, democracy and the rule of law across Europe. International partnerships provide a significant contribution towards regional stability and local democracy and the UK Government welcomes such activity between communities. For example, since 2018, we have worked with local authorities to build partnerships between the UK and Italy focussed on sharing best practice on integration and supporting newly arrived migrants. In March 2019, the UK and French Governments brought together elected Leaders and Mayors from cities, towns and regions across our countries at the inaugural UK-France Mayors' summit in London. This initiative strengthened existing partnerships between towns and cities in France and the UK, and provided a platform for local leaders to share solutions to modern day challenges.
Asked by: Earl of Dundee (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to their policy as chair of the Council of Europe to seek to boost grass roots democracy and political stability at local levels, what plans they have to encourage their international partners to establish partnerships with different communities and areas within Council of Europe member states.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK places great value on the role of the Council of Europe (CoE) in advancing work on human rights, democracy and the rule of law across Europe. As set out in the Integrated Review our plans to encourage our international partners to establish partnerships with different communities and areas go much wider than the CoE member states. The UK will work with allies, including CoE member states and civil society worldwide, to protect democratic values as part of our force for good agenda. In many instances, this will involve working bilaterally with countries to strengthen their domestic governance. In doing so, the UK government will focus its efforts primarily in the wider European neighbourhood, East Africa and the Indo-Pacific, tailoring our approach to meet local needs and combining our diplomacy, development, trade, security and other tools accordingly. To promote robust democratic institutions, the UK will support strong, transparent and accountable political processes and institutions overseas (including parliaments and political parties) through the Westminster Foundation for Democracy and other institutions. This work will be bolstered by a new UK capability to support election observation and activity to strengthen existing multilateral efforts.
Asked by: Earl of Dundee (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to ratify Protocol No. 3 to the European Outline Convention on Transfrontier Co-operation between Territorial Communities or Authorities concerning Euroregional Co-operation Groupings to promote cooperation among local authorities.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The UK has a long tradition of welcoming partnerships and cooperation among local authorities, and recognises that effective partnerships can enrich the economic, social and environmental success of communities.
For example, in 2019, the UK and French Governments hosted a Summit in London to bring together over 100 local authority leaders and mayors from across the UK and France. Following the Summit, the British Embassy in Paris launched a ‘call for projects’ from partnerships between the UK and France. Through this initiative, UK Government provided seed funding for 3 projects between UK/France partners, including Glasgow and Marseille, Manchester and Montpelier, and Kent and Pas de Calais.
To date, HMG has not considered the particular provisions of the European Outline Convention on Transfrontier Co-operation between Territorial Communities or Authorities and its Protocols, as necessary considering our existing legal framework, but this is something we will keep under review.