Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether he is taking steps to mitigate the effect of the increases to the dependent’s fee on British expatriate workers in Saudi Arabia; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Alistair Burt
We understand the dependency fees, introduced by the Government of Saudi Arabia in July 2017, have had an impact on expatriate workers in Saudi Arabia. Taxation policy is a matter for the Saudi Arabian authorities.
Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the merits of the application of the principle of universal jurisdiction for alleged war crimes during the Sri Lankan civil war; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Mark Field
UK support for international criminal justice and accountability is a fundamental element of our foreign policy. The UK supports Sri Lanka's accountability commitments to the UN Human Rights Council through Resolutions 30/1 and 34/1 as the best way to establish truth, and to achieve justice, restitution and reconciliation. A national process, initiated by the Government of Sri Lanka and supported by all communities, offers the best route to achieve this.
Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to the Government of Sri Lanka on the establishment in that country of an office on missing persons.
Answered by Mark Field
The UK supports the full implementation of UN Human Rights Council Resolution 34/1, under which Sri Lanka committed to implement a range of measures to promote human rights, accountability, reconciliation, and devolution of political powers following the end of its civil war. We have consistently encouraged the Government of Sri Lanka to establish a credible Office of Missing Persons and have raised this issue regularly at all levels, including in our public diplomacy.
I encouraged Foreign Minister Marapana to continue to make progress on the operationalisation of an Office of Missing Persons when I met him in Colombo in October 2017. I also wrote to Foreign Minister Marapana on 7 March setting out UK views ahead of the 37th session of the UN Human Rights Council and emphasised the importance of establishing transitional justice mechanisms.
We welcome the appointment of OMP commissioners and will continue to encourage the Government to ensure that their important work begins very soon.
Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with the government of Sri Lanka on that government's failure to implement the UK-sponsored resolution 30/1 of the UN Human Rights Council.
Answered by Mark Field
The UK is committed to the full implementation of UN Human Rights Council Resolution 34/1, under which Sri Lanka committed to implement a range of measures to provide for human rights, truth-seeking, reconciliation, and devolution of political powers following the end of its civil war. I encouraged Foreign Minister Marapana to continue to make progress on these commitments when I met him in Colombo in October 2017. Most recently I wrote to him on 7 March setting out UK views ahead of the 37th session of the UN Human Rights Council.
Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how much his Department spent on services provided by Uber in each of the last five years.
Answered by Alan Duncan
The table below shows the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s global expenditure and number of transactions with Uber for each financial year. Data on card expenditure is held from 2015 onwards only.
Financial Year | Global expenditure with UBER | No. of transactions |
2015-16 | £67,314 | 7,639 |
2016-17 | £123,808 | 14,518 |
2017-18 | £163,122 | 19,887 |
Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent representations he has made to the Government of Sri Lanka on violence perpetrated against Sri Lanka's Muslim minority.
Answered by Mark Field
I am deeply concerned by the recent inter-communal violence in Sri Lanka and I wrote to Foreign Minister Marapana on 7 March setting out the British Government's views. We support the Government of Sri Lanka's action in swiftly bringing the violence to an to end and urge it to hold the perpetrators to account. It is vital that all leaders in Sri Lanka condemn violence and hate, and make every effort to promote harmony.
Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent representations he has made to the Government of Sri Lanka on the establishment of a country office of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in that country.
Answered by Mark Field
The UK has not to date made representations to the Government of Sri Lanka on the establishment of a UN country office. The High Commissioner for Human Rights has a number of Special Rapporteurs who travel to Sri Lanka on his behalf and publish findings from their visits and the Government is engaging constructively with them. The UK is committed to working with the Government of Sri Lanka to implement its international human rights commitments.
I encouraged Foreign Minister Marapana to continue to make progress on these commitments when I met him in October 2017. The UK is also providing Sri Lanka with £6.6 million of Conflict, Stability and Security Fund funding over three years, to include support for police reform and training, reconciliation and peace building, and demining in the north of the country.
Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, when he last visited the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Answered by Alan Duncan
The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs has not visited the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland since his appointment as Foreign Secretary. He has visited the border several times prior to becoming Foreign Secretary, both before and after the Belfast Agreement was agreed and implemented. He last visited Ireland on 16-17 November 2017.
Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what steps he is taking to prevent the persecution of Christians in countries where they are at risk.
Answered by Mark Field
The Government condemns all persecution on the grounds of religious identity, faith or belief and calls upon all state authorities to respect and protect the universal right to freedom of religion or belief. This policy is implemented both in multilateral fora through relevant resolutions at the UN Security Council, most recently Resolution 2379 on 21 September or Human Rights Council, and through raising cases of persecution in individual countries. I regularly raised this issue with my counterparts in the region, including on a visit to Pakistan on 8-9 November 2017. The FCO Magna Carter Fund for Human Rights and Democracy supports projects designed to promote greater tolerance and to create conditions less conducive to extremism and persecution.
Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to his Sri Lankan counterpart on the implementation of UN Human Rights Council Resolution 30/1 on promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in that country.
Answered by Mark Field
During my visit in early October 2017 to Colombo and Jaffna, I raised with Foreign Minister Marapana the importance of the Sri Lankan government implementing in full its commitments under UN Human Rights Council Resolution 34/1, which rolled over the commitments made under 30/1. These commitments include the return of all military-held private land, the operationalisation of the Office of Missing Persons, and the development of new counter-terrorism legislation in line with international human rights standards.
The UK is committed to the full implementation of Resolution 34/1 and will continue to support the Government of Sri Lanka in its efforts to promote reconciliation and human rights.