Asked by: Lord Jones of Cheltenham (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure that the extension of the Equiano subsea cable project to St Helena provides (1) a universal, and (2) a cheap, internet connection, in line with the EU’s conditions for a grant for the extension.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The St Helena Government was granted funding by the 11th European Development Fund in February 2018 for a sub-marine fibre optic cable to the island and is responsible for managing the project. It signed a contract with Google in December 2019 for the construction of the cable that will branch off the main Equiano cable running between Portugal and South Africa. The St Helena Government owns the branch and is responsible for developing the cable landing station. Its key objective is to ensure all residents on St Helena have access to reliable, high capacity bandwidth at affordable prices and plans to introduce a regulator to enforce Key Performance Indicators which will be provided for in the new telecoms licence that will come into force on 1 January 2023. It is also working towards earth stations, digital businesses and digital nomads being located on the island, and for this additional demand for services to assist in the lowering of prices for residents. The cable, along with the associated high speed internet, is scheduled to be operational in 2022.
Asked by: Lord Jones of Cheltenham (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the departure of the UK from the EU, what assessment they have made of the impact on exports to the EU of (1) fish from St Helena, (2) crayfish from Tristan da Cunha, and (3) squid and meat from the Falkland Islands.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK Government is fully committed to supporting the Overseas Territories. The impact of the UK's departure from the EU is different for each territory, including the introduction of tariff on exports from the Overseas Territories. Fish exports from St. Helena are not significantly impacted. Tristan da Cunha does not export crayfish to the EU, and exports of rock lobster are currently not subject to tariffs. Exports from the Falkland Islands to the EU are now subject to tariffs. We will continue to work with the Overseas Territories to take the necessary steps in mitigating the impact of the UK's departure from the EU.
Asked by: Lord Jones of Cheltenham (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the electoral process in the United States; and whether they have made representations to the current President of the United States about those processes.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
We send our warm congratulations to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on winning this election, with more votes than any candidate in US history. The US Presidential election was a hard fought campaign, but the turnout of over 150 million American voters shows the strength of US democracy. As the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary have said, it is not the place of foreign governments to tell candidates in a US election how they should react to these results. We have confidence in the checks and balances of the US system to resolve any disputes.
Asked by: Lord Jones of Cheltenham (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what meetings they plan to hold with the government of the United States in November and December 2020.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
Regardless of who wins the election, the Government will continue to work closely with the current US Administration in these months, as we would normally do, on a variety of issues.
Asked by: Lord Jones of Cheltenham (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with local authorities on Ascension and St Helena over the islands’ suitability as asylum processing centres.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
As the Foreign Secretary told the Foreign Affairs Select Committee on 6 October 2020, the Government is developing plans to reform policies and laws around illegal migration and asylum to ensure we are able to provide protection to those who need it, while preventing abuse of the system and the criminality associated with it. As part of that work the Government has looked at what other countries do to inform a plan for the UK.
Asked by: Lord Jones of Cheltenham (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much was spent on the wars in Iraq; and how much has been spent subsequently on assisting (1) translators who helped the UK during the wars, and (2) refugees from Iraq displaced by the wars to settle in the UK.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The costs of Operation TELIC, under which all UK military operations in Iraq were conducted from 2003-2011, were £8.164 billion. Operation SHADER, which is working to ensure the lasting defeat of Daesh in Syria and in Iraq cost £1.899 billion to 2019/20. The scheme that we had in place to assist Iraqis who worked for our forces during the conflict - and in certain cases relocate them to the UK - closed in 2010. It is difficult to quantify how much was spent on assisting refugees displaced by the wars in Iraq to settle in the UK. Iraq was the second most common nationality of resettled refugees in the UK between 2010-2019- with 1,876 Iraqi refugees resettled.
Asked by: Lord Jones of Cheltenham (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports from the World Health Organisation and UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme that (1) 785 million people do not have access to clean water close to home, (2) two billion people do not have a decent toilet, and (3) three billion people do not have basic handwashing facilities at home; and what plans they have to work with other governments to tackle those issues, particularly in view of the importance of sanitation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
The FCDO takes the data in these reports very seriously, and we are proud to support the WHO and UNICEF to produce them. If current trends continue, Sustainable Development Goal 6 targets for water supply, sanitation and hygiene will not be achieved. This will undermine the achievement of many other global goals, and our own commitment to end the preventable deaths of mothers, infants and children. Progress on hygiene and sanitation is needed to tackle COVID-19 and other infectious diseases. Over the last five years, the UK has helped 62 million people gain access to water and sanitation services. We are working with Unilever and other partners to promote hand hygiene for up to a billion people in response to the current pandemic. We also need longer-term solutions. To maximise the impact of aid, we are shifting our focus to strengthen national health systems which can deliver and sustain access at a far greater scale - and which can attract additional financial resources.
Asked by: Lord Jones of Cheltenham (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Sugg on 17 September (HL7786), whether the reference in that answer to emergency support having been provided to the Mauritian Wildlife Fund should have been to the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
I thank the Noble Lord for highlighting this error to me.
A correction has now been made to question HL7785 and HL7786 to correctly identify the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation in my previous replies
Asked by: Lord Jones of Cheltenham (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assistance they provide to developing countries for family planning services.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
The UK is a global leader on family planning and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). The UK is a founding member of the FP2020 partnership, established at the 2012 London Summit on Family Planning to support governments in developing countries to make and deliver on commitments to family planning. We accelerated progress towards these goals at the 2017 London Family Planning Summit and we are now working closely with the global community to shape the post-2020 family planning partnership.
The UK is the second largest bilateral donor to family planning; this assistance is delivered through a range of programmes, including our flagship SRHR programme 'WISH' and as the largest donor to UNFPA Supplies. In 2017/18 alone, the UK spent £241.5 million of UK aid on family planning, reaching 30.9m total users of contraception, preventing 10.7 million unintended pregnancies. .
Asked by: Lord Jones of Cheltenham (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, following the oil spill caused by the shipwreck of MV Wakashio, what assistance they are providing to the government of Mauritius to clean the area and save wildlife, particularly the endangered species in and around the national park of Ile aux Aigrettes.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
Following the oil spill, the Government of Mauritius requested urgent assistance from the international community. As part of this response, we deployed three ecology experts from the UK's Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science. These experts are assessing the scale of the damage and are helping Mauritius identify the best ways to restore its coastline and protect the species now at risk of oil pollution. In addition, a package of legal and technical advice has been provided to assist with the safe disposal of the stricken ship. We also deployed a marine expert to the scene and have put in place a team of lawyers and marine consultants who are also helping the Mauritian Government while working remotely from the UK.
Finally, the UK has committed £10,000 of new emergency support for the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation to support its urgent work to help the local nature reserves directly impacted by the oil spill, including Ile aux Aigrettes. We will continue to monitor the situation closely and assist the Mauritian Government to limit the impact of the spill.