Asked by: Douglas Chapman (Scottish National Party - Dunfermline and West Fife)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what investigatory methods his Department uses for reports of potential breaches of international humanitarian law by UK allies in Yemen.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
The Ministry of Defence monitors incidents of alleged International Humanitarian Law (IHL) violations using all available information which in turn informs our overall assessment of IHL compliance in Yemen. We consider a range of information from government sources, foreign governments, the media and international non-governmental organisations regarding reports of potential breaches of IHL.
We regularly raise the importance of compliance with IHL with the Saudi Arabian Government and other members of the military Coalition. The UK is not a member of the Saudi-led Coalition. British personnel are not involved in carrying out strikes, directing or conducting operations in Yemen or selecting targets and are not involved in the Saudi targeting decision-making process. However we have provided training and advice to Saudi Arabia to ensure continued compliance with IHL and minimise civilian casualties.
Asked by: Douglas Chapman (Scottish National Party - Dunfermline and West Fife)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether his Department has made an assessment of the Russian government's position on the UK leaving the EU.
Answered by David Lidington
A strong, unified European Union has a critical role to play in responding to Russian aggression in Ukraine, which has challenged stability and security on the continent. The UK has played a leading role in pressing for tough EU sanctions, delivering a cost to Russia for its actions and supporting the full implementation of the Minsk agreements. It is likely that Russia would seek to exploit the UK leaving the EU in order to sow disunity amongst Member States and weaken their resolve. This reinforces the Government’s view that the UK will be stronger, safer and better off remaining in a reformed EU.
Asked by: Douglas Chapman (Scottish National Party - Dunfermline and West Fife)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how much funding the BBC World Service's Russian language service received in each year from 2008 to date.
Answered by David Lidington
The BBC World Service advises that the Russian language service received the following funding from 2007/2008 to 2013/2014:
2007/08: £4.3 million
2008/09: £5.2 million
2009/10: £5.3 million
2010/11: £5.2 million
2011/12: £3.6 million
2012/13: £3.4 million
2013/14: £3.4 million
The figures from April 2014 are not available.
The BBC World Service will receive up to £85 million per year until 2020 to fund additional services to their existing programmes, in addition to licence fee funding.
Asked by: Douglas Chapman (Scottish National Party - Dunfermline and West Fife)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps the Government has taken to improve accessibility and reduce costs of visas for British citizens wishing to visit Iran.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
Decisions over the cost and accessibility of Iranian visas are a decision for the Iranian Government. We continue to engage directly with the Iranians at all levels to move towards normalising and improving our respective visa services.
Asked by: Douglas Chapman (Scottish National Party - Dunfermline and West Fife)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many diplomatic staff are based at the British Embassy in Tehran; and what change there has been in the number of such staff since the announcement of the reopening of that Embassy in 2015.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
There are currently 7 UK diplomatic staff based at the British Embassy in Tehran, including the new Charge d'affaires who arrived at Post on 31 December 2015. This is a significant increase from the 2 UK diplomatic staff that were based in Tehran before the formal reopening last year. We anticipate further additions to the number of Embassy staff in due course.
Asked by: Douglas Chapman (Scottish National Party - Dunfermline and West Fife)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how much his Department spent on Continuity of Education Allowance in independent schools in financial year (a) 2012-13, (b) 2013-14 and (c) 2014-15; how many children were in receipt of that allowance in each of those years; and which five schools had the highest spend on that allowance in each of those years.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
It is a condition of their employment that members of the diplomatic service must be prepared to serve anywhere in the world at any time during their career, sometimes at very short notice. Those with children have a legal obligation as parents to ensure that their children receive a full-time education from the age of five years. Most parents prefer to take their children with them abroad, but in some of the 168 countries and territories where the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has UK based staff, we do not permit staff to take their children either for health or security reasons. In others, local schools of an acceptable standard are not available. It is longstanding practice that the FCO helps staff meet their potentially conflicting obligations by providing financial support for their children's education in the UK where staff choose this, or are obliged to do so given local conditions in the country to which they are posted.
Continuity of education is also an important factor, particularly at secondary level.
The FCO refunds standard term fees up to a ceiling which is reviewed annually. Where staff opt to send their children to more expensive schools, staff meet the difference in cost. The maximum amount the FCO will pay is determined by an independent survey conducted by ECA International, which is used by public and private sector employers whose staff work across the world. Various factors, including availability of places (sometimes at short notice) and proximity of other family members, influence which schools staff choose for their children.
FY UK School costs (CEA) Number of Children
2012/13 £14,926,061 700
2013/14 £13,704,118 (£13,162,823)*625 (604)*
2014/15 £12,943,134 (£12,391,079)*593 (570)*
*Cost to the FCO after reclaiming costs from other Government departments for their staff deployed overseas
We are unable to provide the 5 schools that had the highest spend in each of those years as to do so would entail checking individual files, which would incur a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Douglas Chapman (Scottish National Party - Dunfermline and West Fife)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, when he and the Secretary of State for Defence met in a 2 plus 2 bilateral meeting with their Russian counterparts.
Answered by David Lidington
The then Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my noble friend the Lord Hague of Richmond and the then Secretary of State for Defence, my right hon. Friend the member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond) met their Russian counterparts at the UK-Russia Joint Foreign and Defence Ministerial Dialogue in London on 13 March 2013. The Government suspended the ‘2+2’ format and wider military cooperation with Russia following Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in March 2014.