Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to provide support to Pakistan during the recent floods.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The UK stands shoulder to shoulder with Pakistan as it faces the consequences of the recent devastating flooding. The UK was one of the first countries to announce funding (£1.5 million) to respond to the humanitarian need. We have now increased this to £16.5 million to support flood relief efforts. UK aid will be targeted towards the hardest hit areas of Sindh and other provinces. The UK contribution is also now over 10 per cent of the joint UN and Government of Pakistan emergency appeal ($160 million). This flooding demonstrates how climate change is making extreme weather events both more intense and more frequent.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to monitor the re-emergence of the Marburg virus in Ghana.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
As outlined in the International Development Strategy, the UK is committed to strengthening global health security. In Ghana, the UK recently trained 7,000 health workers on surveillance and response, including in the regions affected by the current Marburg outbreak. Ghana responded swiftly to the outbreak and continues to intensify containment measures, with all new suspected Marburg cases identified through surveillance activities. The UK continues to support Ghana on surveillance and infection prevention and control, and has offered to provide additional support if needed.
More broadly, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs are also providing technical support to the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, to improve regional preparedness and response, and address weaknesses in health security systems in Ghana and neighbouring countries as needed. The FCDO's Emergency Medical Teams and UK Health Security Agency's Public Health Rapid Response Teams have expertise and capacity to be deployed at short notice and have recently provided support to African countries including Ghana, for Covid-19 and Ebola and Marburg outbreaks.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to prohibit UK persons from undertaking financial transactions involving the Central Bank of Belarus.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
We stand united with international partners in condemning the Belarusian Government for facilitating Russia's unlawful invasion of Ukraine from within its borders. Our intention is to extend recent Russia sanctions to Belarus. The Lukashenko regime will be made to feel the economic consequences for its support for Putin.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to impose sanctions on Gazprombank.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
We are focusing our efforts on those measures which will have the biggest impact. The UK Government has blocked all Russian companies from raising capital on UK markets, including Gazprombank and other significant Russian entities.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to sanction Russia by excluding them from the SWIFT international payments system.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
Following discussions between the UK and international partners, the EU announced on 2 March that 7 Russian banks would be removed from SWIFT on 12 March. UK pressure was instrumental to this decision. This measure on already sanctioned entities, in concert with the US and the EU, will ensure that these Russian banks will no longer be able to use SWIFT to transact with banks in any country, regardless of whether that country has imposed sanctions on Russia.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce the time taken to sanction named Russian oligarchs.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The amendments to the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 (the Sanctions Act) in the Economic Crime Bill, to streamline the current legislation, will ensure the Government can designate groups of individuals more quickly, and enable the UK to align rapidly with designations imposed by our allies. An urgent designation procedure will enable the Foreign Secretary to swiftly designate individuals, entities and categories of persons designated by the EU, US, Canada, Australia and others.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to impose sanctions to restrict the transfer of money in and out of Russia in the form of cryptocurrencies.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The Prime Minister has announced the largest and most severe package of economic sanctions Russia has ever seen. Acting in concert with our allies, our measures will deliver a devastating blow to Russia's economy and military for years to come. We will also introduce a further Economic Crime Bill to enact the full set of reforms to Companies House, as well as new measures on anti-money laundering; seizing cryptocurrencies; and tackling the abuse of corporate structures used to facilitate crime.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to introduce a travel ban on President Putin and Sergey Lavrov.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
We have already imposed sanctions on Vladimir Putin and Sergey Lavrov to cut them off from the privilege of access to doing business with the UK. We are coordinating with our allies to ensure as strong a package as possible to create maximum impact - nothing is off the table.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to convene a multi-nation conference to respond (1) practically, and (2) financially, to the humanitarian issue in Afghanistan.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
We welcome the 2022 Humanitarian Response Plan. We understand that the UN will be organising an international pledging conference in the coming months, which we fully support. It is important that donors across the world step up to this challenge, including by responding to the UN's call for additional funding.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to reinstate 0.7 per cent of Gross Domestic Product for Overseas Development Assistance to address migrant displacement.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The Government is committed to returning to spending 0.7 per cent of GNI on official development assistance (ODA) when the fiscal situation allows and has provided a clear measure for this. The two key tests are (1) When we are not borrowing to support day-to-day spending. That means when the current budget is in surplus. (2) When underlying debt is falling. This is measured by Public Sector Net Debt (excluding the Bank of England) as a percentage of GDP. When these tests are met then the Government will increase ODA spending above 0.5% of GNI to 0.7% of GNI. On 13 July, the Government provided members of Parliament the opportunity to debate its proposed course of action and pathway back to 0.7. The House voted clearly with a majority of 35 votes to approve the approach set out in the Treasury's 12 July Written Ministerial Statement. Improving economic forecasts show that HMG may meet its test to return to spending 0.7% of Gross National Income on aid in the final year of this Spending Review.