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 tackle transnational repression in the UK but which relates to other countries by definition.

Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

I refer the Rt Hon Member to the answer provided on 11 December 2025 in response to Question 97660.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what information is collected by her Department on incidences related to transnational repression.

Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

I refer the Rt Hon Member to the answer provided on 11 December 2025 in response to Question 97660.

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 potential implications for its policies of sexual violence perpetrated by armed actors in Darfur.

Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

I thank the Rt. Hon Member for her consistent and passionate campaigning on this issue. The UK remains determined to tackle the abhorrent levels of violence against women and girls in Sudan, including the widespread use of rape as a weapon of war, and we continue to work with international partners and Non Governmental Organisations to provide support to the victims of that violence, to pursue justice against the perpetrators, and to seek a path to lasting peace and security in Sudan, so that women and girls in that country, and those that have fled to neighbouring countries, can live their lives free from fear.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential impact on her policies of Médecins Sans Frontières' report entitled There is something that I want to tell you...: surviving the sexual violence crisis in Darfur, published on 31 March 2026.

Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

I thank the Rt. Hon Member for her consistent and passionate campaigning on this issue. The UK remains determined to tackle the abhorrent levels of violence against women and girls in Sudan, including the widespread use of rape as a weapon of war, and we continue to work with international partners and Non Governmental Organisations to provide support to the victims of that violence, to pursue justice against the perpetrators, and to seek a path to lasting peace and security in Sudan, so that women and girls in that country, and those that have fled to neighbouring countries, can live their lives free from fear.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what definition has her Department used to identify instances of transnational repression.

Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

I refer the Rt Hon Member to the answer provided on 11 December 2025 in response to Question 97660.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether AI companies under contract to the Armed Services could be legally required to operate a) fully autonomous lethal operations and b) mass surveillance.

Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

Working with suppliers, Defence applies rigorous commercial procurement, assurance, and governance processes to procure and deploy cutting edge AI technology, in accordance with our legal obligations and our published Ethical Principles. Engagement with industry is conducted solely within agreed contractual arrangements; the Department does not compel companies outside of contracts. The Department explicitly rules out the development or use of autonomous capabilities which operate without context appropriate human involvement and conducts only lawful and proportionate surveillance.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps she is taking with international counterparts to help minimise disruption to humanitarian operations in Sudan resulting from the Strait of Hormuz closure.

Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The UK continues to work with international partners to restore freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. In the 17 April call hosted by the Prime Minister and President Macron of France with 51 countries and international organisations, the humanitarian impact of the Strait's closure was one of the issues discussed. Humanitarian access into and across Sudan itself remains a key barrier to aid delivery, as set out in the GOV.UK announcement issued on 15 April, and linked to below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-boosts-funding-to-local-responders-to-help-more-than-18-million-people-in-sudans-humanitarian-crisis.

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 potential impact of the Strait of Hormuz closure on humanitarian need and access in Sudan.

Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The UK continues to work with international partners to restore freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. In the 17 April call hosted by the Prime Minister and President Macron of France with 51 countries and international organisations, the humanitarian impact of the Strait's closure was one of the issues discussed. Humanitarian access into and across Sudan itself remains a key barrier to aid delivery, as set out in the GOV.UK announcement issued on 15 April, and linked to below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-boosts-funding-to-local-responders-to-help-more-than-18-million-people-in-sudans-humanitarian-crisis.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what representations she has made over the last six months to the Government of Israel concerning the UK’s objection to the E1 proposal.

Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

I refer the Rt Hon Member to the answers that the Foreign Secretary and I gave on illegal settlements at the last session of departmental oral questions on 21 April. We continue to be clear with Israel that we oppose the E1 settlement plan.

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 other nations over the last six months concerning coordinated action against the Government of Israel’s E1 proposal.

Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

I refer the Rt Hon Member to the answers that the Foreign Secretary and I gave on illegal settlements at the last session of departmental oral questions on 21 April. We continue to be clear with Israel that we oppose the E1 settlement plan.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what representations the UK Embassy in Israel has made to the Government of Israel over the last six months concerning the UK's stated objection to the E1 proposal.

Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

I refer the Rt Hon Member to the answers that the Foreign Secretary and I gave on illegal settlements at the last session of departmental oral questions on 21 April. We continue to be clear with Israel that we oppose the E1 settlement plan.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking through the Relationships, Sex and Health Education curriculum to tackle misogynistic narratives promoted by online influencers.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

This government is committed to ensuring that children are taught to tackle harmful ideas, unhealthy views about relationships, and misogyny in school. We have overhauled the Relationships, Sex, and Health Education curriculum, with a new focus on developing skills for healthy relationships from the beginning of primary school, and equipping children with the tools to tackle harmful influences. Through our new statutory guidance, we will support young people to develop positive conceptions of masculinity and femininity, and to understand the harmful impacts of misogynistic online content, including pornography.

The department is currently finalising a series of resources for Key Stages 2 to 5 to support schools to root out and tackle misogyny, complementing the series on our Educate Against Hate website. The new resources will aid development of stronger, respectful teaching environments with enhanced safeguarding and the prevention of toxic behaviours.

We have also developed misogyny-specific content for the Kids Online Safety campaign site that will give parents information and tools to spot warning signs, hold open conversations and direct to further support where they need it.

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 diplomatic posts are trained in atrocity prevention.

Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The Government ensures that diplomatic posts are equipped to identify and respond to risks of mass atrocities through a combination of policy guidance, training and expert support. This year, we have established a community of expertise on conflict and violence, which integrates policy guidance, peer-to-peer engagement and evidence-based practice into a platform accessible to all staff.

Through our partnership with the Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities, we have delivered foundational and bespoke atrocity prevention training to over 150 staff working in 35 countries.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what budget is allocated to (a) the Conflict and Atrocity Prevention Department overall and (b) to work on atrocity anticipation, prevention and response not including conflict prevention work.

Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The Department's conflict and atrocity prevention funding is embedded across our diplomacy, development, humanitarian, human rights and multilateral activity. We will continue to prioritise funding where it has the greatest preventative impact, including in fragile and conflict-affected states, with UK spend in these countries increasing to over 70 per cent of all country and regional spending by 2028/29.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what number of staff in the Conflict and Atrocity Prevention Department work on atrocity, prevention (a) as their primary role and (b) as part of their portfolio.

Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The Department's conflict and atrocity prevention funding is embedded across our diplomacy, development, humanitarian, human rights and multilateral activity. We will continue to prioritise funding where it has the greatest preventative impact, including in fragile and conflict-affected states, with UK spend in these countries increasing to over 70 per cent of all country and regional spending by 2028/29.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she is taking steps to engage with universities on the issue of the transnational repression of their staff and students.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Any attempt to intimidate, harass or harm academics in the UK will not be tolerated. Since February 2026, we have held a series of events, engaging over 200 higher education staff on foreign interference concerns such as transnational repression, including a meeting of Vice-Chancellors with Ministers and MI5. The Education Secretary also met with academics to discuss how to strengthen support.

The National Security Act 2023 provides effective tools which increase our ability to target hostile activity from foreign states. For higher education, there are a range of relevant regulatory expectations including around academic freedom, free speech and protection from harassment. We have also issued guidance available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/protecting-uk-higher-education-from-foreign-interference to help students and staff identify and escalate concerns.

The government is investing £3 million in a package of measures to tackle foreign interference, including a new Academic Interference Reporting Route, enabling senior university leaders to raise concerns directly with government.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support she is providing to universities on the issue of transnational repression of their staff and students.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Any attempt to intimidate, harass or harm academics in the UK will not be tolerated. Since February 2026, we have held a series of events, engaging over 200 higher education staff on foreign interference concerns such as transnational repression, including a meeting of Vice-Chancellors with Ministers and MI5. The Education Secretary also met with academics to discuss how to strengthen support.

The National Security Act 2023 provides effective tools which increase our ability to target hostile activity from foreign states. For higher education, there are a range of relevant regulatory expectations including around academic freedom, free speech and protection from harassment. We have also issued guidance available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/protecting-uk-higher-education-from-foreign-interference to help students and staff identify and escalate concerns.

The government is investing £3 million in a package of measures to tackle foreign interference, including a new Academic Interference Reporting Route, enabling senior university leaders to raise concerns directly with government.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps is she taking to help support academics in the UK from transnational repression.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Any attempt to intimidate, harass or harm academics in the UK will not be tolerated. Since February 2026, we have held a series of events, engaging over 200 higher education staff on foreign interference concerns such as transnational repression, including a meeting of Vice-Chancellors with Ministers and MI5. The Education Secretary also met with academics to discuss how to strengthen support.

The National Security Act 2023 provides effective tools which increase our ability to target hostile activity from foreign states. For higher education, there are a range of relevant regulatory expectations including around academic freedom, free speech and protection from harassment. We have also issued guidance available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/protecting-uk-higher-education-from-foreign-interference to help students and staff identify and escalate concerns.

The government is investing £3 million in a package of measures to tackle foreign interference, including a new Academic Interference Reporting Route, enabling senior university leaders to raise concerns directly with government.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps she is taking through the G7 and G20 processes to deliver improvements for women and girls.

Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

I refer the Rt Hon. Member to the answer provided on 23 April to Question 128522.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, when her Department intends to publish its Women and Girls' Framework.

Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

I refer the Rt Hon. Member to the answer provided on 10 March 2026 to Question 117530.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps she is taking to ensure that her Department’s humanitarian programmes are gender- and age- sensitive and are delivering effectively for women and girls of all ages.

Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

We are strengthening our prioritisation of women and girls across the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office's (FCDO) work and have committed that at least 90 per cent of FCDO bilateral Official Development Assistance programmes will contribute to gender equality by 2030, benefiting women and girls of all ages. In humanitarian settings, the UK backs women‑led organisations to help reach those most at risk, and we continue to demand that all UK funded programmes meet robust safeguarding standards.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to monitor outcomes from the Asylum Case Summarisation system to ensure that summaries are not provided to caseworkers if they (a) include missing information and (b) are inaccurate.

Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)

Asylum Case Summarisation (ACS) was designed with the ‘Human in the Loop’ principle in mind. This means it is not possible for decision makers to use the tool to decide an asylum claim; it is an aid to case working. The tool uses a Large Language Model to extract and summarise information from existing asylum interview transcript documents to provide decision-makers with a concise summary document. Asylum Decision Makers are required to read all evidence and case notes specific to the claimant, before deciding a claim.

Part of the quality assurance framework asks if all documents submitted in support of a claim have been considered, with quality assurance checks regularly carried out on both asylum interviews and decisions.

As part of ongoing evaluation of the Asylum Policy Search (APS) tool, Subject Matter Expert (SME) testing continues in conjunction with the Country Policy and Information Team. A dedicated inbox was created for feedback and/or errors to be flagged and rectified. This is in addition to the existing quality assurance checks conducted in Asylum Operations. ACS has (as of today 27/04) become operational, and the same approach to ongoing evaluation and feedback mechanisms is being set out.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will set out the mechanisms her Department are using to monitor the early stages of use of the Asylum Case Summarisation and Asylum Policy Search tools.

Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)

Asylum Case Summarisation (ACS) was designed with the ‘Human in the Loop’ principle in mind. This means it is not possible for decision makers to use the tool to decide an asylum claim; it is an aid to case working. The tool uses a Large Language Model to extract and summarise information from existing asylum interview transcript documents to provide decision-makers with a concise summary document. Asylum Decision Makers are required to read all evidence and case notes specific to the claimant, before deciding a claim.

Part of the quality assurance framework asks if all documents submitted in support of a claim have been considered, with quality assurance checks regularly carried out on both asylum interviews and decisions.

As part of ongoing evaluation of the Asylum Policy Search (APS) tool, Subject Matter Expert (SME) testing continues in conjunction with the Country Policy and Information Team. A dedicated inbox was created for feedback and/or errors to be flagged and rectified. This is in addition to the existing quality assurance checks conducted in Asylum Operations. ACS has (as of today 27/04) become operational, and the same approach to ongoing evaluation and feedback mechanisms is being set out.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what humanitarian support is being provided by her Department to Sudanese refugees currently based outside of Sudan.

Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

I refer the Rt Hon Member to the statement provided to the House by the Foreign Secretary on 5 February after her visit to the Sudan-Chad border. Last May, the UK announced £36 million of dedicated funding to support Sudanese refugees in eastern Chad, helping to ease pressure on host communities and deliver food, health, water and protection assistance through trusted partners.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, pursuant to the answer of 25 February 2026, to Question 112303, on online censorship of women's health, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of censorship by social media companies of information on how bystanders can administer CPR to women.

Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

We recognise the important role of trusted online health content. The Online Safety Act places duties on services to protect their users including from illegal content and content harmful to children. It does not prevent adults or children from accessing legal content about women’s health. Users of the largest categorised services will have access to effective complaints procedures to appeal when content is unduly taken down.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps the Government is taking to coordinate with international partners to address the cross-border spread of misogynistic online content.

Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether her Department has commissioned research on the (a) scale and (b) impact of misogynistic online content.

Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The government is committed to tackling misogynistic online content and has taken action by criminalising additional forms of intimate image abuse, as well as prioritising these under the Online Safety Act, and introducing new measures including a 48‑hour takedown duty.

Ofcom has produced guidance setting out how providers can take action against harmful content and activity that disproportionately affects women and girls, in recognition of the unique risks they face. Ofcom surveys found 15% of UK adults reported seeing content that objectified or demeaned women in the four weeks prior to January 2026. This was down from 20% in June 2025. We know there is still much more to do and are committed to acting.