Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what funding his Department has provided for (a) sexual and reproductive health and rights, (b) maternal care and (c) other programmes for women's health in Pakistan in the 2022-23 financial year.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
The UK has a long history of financial and technical support to the health sector in Pakistan. Bilateral programmes have focussed on health system strengthening, reproductive health, maternal and child health and nutrition. Since 2012, UK Aid in Pakistan has reached over 9.7 million family planning users and prevented 8,809 maternal deaths, over 8.08 million unwanted pregnancies and 1.89 million unsafe abortions. Currently our family planning programme has pivoted to flood support, providing primary health care to affected communities especially vulnerable women and children. Future Aid prioritisation decisions will be guided by the new UK International Development Strategy to ensure we continue to support women and girls, address increasing global challenges, deliver investment, get humanitarian assistance to those who need it most and continue our work on climate change, nature, and global health.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to help reduce the maternal mortality rate in Pakistan.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The UK is one of the largest donors in tackling maternal and child mortality in Pakistan. UK support has improved reproductive health, maternal and child health in Pakistan; since 2012 our programming has prevented 8,811 maternal deaths.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether she plans to implement aviation fuel sanctions in respect of the Burmese military.
Answered by Amanda Milling - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Since the coup on 1 February 2021, the UK has led the international sanctions response, in coordination with partners, including the US and Canada. The UK has now imposed 11 tranches of targeted sanctions against the military regime. We remain very concerned by the military's use of indiscriminate airstrikes against civilians, and we are exploring further measures to tackle the military's ability to use air capabilities to target civilians. On 28 February 2022 the UK updated our Overseas Business Risk Guidance to make it clear that UK businesses should conduct thorough supply chain due diligence to ensure that commodities such as jet-fuel do not reach the military.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions she has had with her Thai counterpart on enabling humanitarian aid to cross the border between Thailand and Myanmar.
Answered by Amanda Milling - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
I [Minister Milling] raised the humanitarian assistance challenges in the border areas with Myanmar with Thailand's Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, when I visited Thailand in January. I discussed these issues again with my Thai counterpart during the UK-Thailand Strategic Dialogue in London on 30 June.
The UK is providing life-saving support on the Thai-Myanmar border. In Karen and Karenni states, which have seen some of the worst conflict, we are supporting the Border Consortium and DanChurchAid, along with many local organisations, to provide life-saving assistance. This support has reached over 80,000 Myanmar refugees in Thailand and 210,000 people in the Thai-Myanmar border areas.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether she has made representations to her US counterpart on sanctioning the Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise.
Answered by Amanda Milling - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Since the coup on 1 February 2021, the UK has imposed 11 tranches of sanctions targeting the military's leadership, businesses and associates. We are in regular contact with our partners in the US, Canada and the EU to coordinate on further sanctions targets. It would be inappropriate to speculate on future targets by either ourselves or our partners.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what representations she has made to her Iraqi counterpart in respect of the case of Jim Fitton.
Answered by Amanda Milling - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Consular officials in Iraq and the UK are providing assistance to Mr Fitton and his family. The British Ambassador in Baghdad has and will continue to, raise Mr Fitton's case with the Iraqi Government. This includes raising with the authorities the UK's strong opposition to the death penalty - both the possibility of it being applied in Mr Fitton's case and in all circumstances as a matter of principle.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 28 February 2022 to Question 127358 on Multilateral Aid: Forced Labour, what assessment her Department has made of the likelihood of Uyghurs in situations of forced labour being able to report their concerns to the Office of the Compliance Advisor Ombudsmen.
Answered by Amanda Milling - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Office of the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO) is an independent complaints mechanism for people who believe they are affected by International Finance Corporation (IFC) projects. CAO helps resolve issues raised about the environmental and social impacts of Projects and Sub-Projects, and also carries out reviews of IFC compliance with its environmental and social policies, assesses related harm, and recommends remedial actions where needed. Complaints are submitted in writing, may be presented in any language, and can be submitted electronically. CAO will maintain confidentiality upon receiving a complaint if requested to do so by the Complainant. The UK has confidence in the CAO, and has been working with the IFC and other development finance institutions to develop stronger safeguards to reduce the risk of forced labour in supply chains.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the impact of the UK’s multilateral education ODA investments on improving learning outcomes for children in literacy and numeracy.
Answered by Vicky Ford
In May 2021, the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) began a results review of the UK's support to global education between 2015-2020, during which time we supported at least 15.6 million children with quality education. The review will examine UK bilateral aid, as well as aid to two multilateral education funds (Global Partnership for Education (GPE) and Education Cannot Wait (ECW)), and our multilateral aid to education via the World Bank's International Development Association (IDA). Publication of this review is expected in April 2022.
In addition, FCDO publishes annual reviews of UK support to the GPE and ECW online on our Development Tracker (https://devtracker.fcdo.gov.uk), including progress with improving children's learning outcomes. Our 2021 annual review of GPE found that 70 percent of GPE partner countries with available data saw improvements in learning outcomes between 2015-16 to 2019-20. The review encouraged GPE, in future, to focus more on supporting and incentivising developing countries to use assessment systems to generate more and better data on children's learning outcomes in countries receiving GPE funding.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 8 December 2021 to Question 85317, which other 15 countries the UK supports bilaterally for foundational learning.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Our 2021 Girls' Education Action Plan set out the UK Government's commitment to improve basic education and focus on foundational learning for all. This is reflected in our bilateral programmes globally, which work to improve teaching, strengthen systems and support the most marginalised children, especially girls. This includes bilateral programmes to improve basic education in Pakistan, Lebanon, Tanzania, Rwanda, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Ghana, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Uganda, DRC, Myanmar, Jordan, Syria, Sierra Leone, Zambia, Kenya and Afghanistan.
We are shining a spotlight on the learning crisis internationally and improving ways of working at the country level by building a new Coalition on Learning with likeminded partners to emphasise the urgency of getting children's learning on track after two years of school closures. We are calling on all governments to keep schools open and to scale up efforts to get girls into school, assess children's learning levels and support children to catch up on learning by prioritising the basics.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that UK taxpayer funding provided to the International Finance Corporation is not used to support companies benefiting from forced labour.
Answered by Amanda Milling - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The UK remains committed to tackling the issue of Uyghur forced labour in global supply chains, working with our international partners. The International Finance Corporation (IFC)'s Performance Standard 2 defines IFC clients' responsibilities for managing labour and working conditions, and precludes the IFC from supporting clients which employ forced labour. People affected by IFC projects can register complaints through the independent Office of the Compliance Advisor Ombudsmen. The UK has been working with the IFC and other development finance institutions to develop stronger safeguards to reduce the risk of forced labour in supply chains.