Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
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 work with partners abroad to improve workplace rights for people employed in the fashion industry.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The Government is clear that it expects all UK businesses to respect human rights throughout their operations, in line with the UN Guiding Principles and the UK National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights. This also applies to the fashion industry. Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act places a requirement on businesses with a turnover of £36 million or more, to publish an annual modern slavery statement setting out the steps they have taken to prevent modern slavery in their operations and supply chains. Additionally, we announced in 2021 that financial penalties for non-compliance would be introduced. These measures will be included in the Modern Slavery Bill that was announced as part of the Queen's Speech in May 2022.
We know that women and girls are most at risk of modern slavery, making up approximately 70% of victims. Our work overseas seeks to support women and girls, including in the overseas garment sector. The "Work in Freedom" programme works to reduce vulnerability to trafficking and forced labour of women and girls who want to work in the care, textiles, clothing, leather and footwear sectors in South Asia and the Arab States. This programme has reached over 380,000 women and girls since 2018.
The UK's Presidency of the G7 in 2021 and the resulting commitments from G7 members to tackle forced labour in global supply chains, demonstrated our continued commitment to ending modern slavery.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent discussions she had with her counterpart in South Korea on improving animal protections in the UK and South Korea.
Answered by Amanda Milling
The UK is proud to have some of the highest animal welfare standards in the world. This puts the UK in a strong position to share information, research and collaborate with other countries, including South Korea, on animal welfare. We do so via a range of mechanisms including at the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), of which South Korea is also a member.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
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 her international counterparts to help protect the human rights of the Kurdish minority in Turkey.
Answered by James Cleverly - Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government
We strongly support all minority groups in Turkey and encourage the Turkish authorities to safeguard their welfare and respect their human rights, in line with provisions in the Turkish constitution that protect the rights of all minorities, including Kurds. With our partners, we continue to call on Turkey to act in line with the conventions of the Council of Europe and broader democratic norms, as well as making progress on domestic judicial reforms. We also encourage full implementation of Turkey's 2021 Human Rights Action Plan for the benefit of all its citizens. We keep these issues under regular review.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
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 the Prime Minister's Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief to ensure the success of the Freedom of Religion or Belief Summit in July 2022.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The UK-hosted International Ministerial Conference on Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) in July 2022 will drive international efforts in defending FoRB for all and look at ways different religious or belief communities around the world can work together, and with governments and civil society. This conference will allow us to use our global influence and convening power to promote and protect freedom of religion or belief for all internationally.
Preparations for the conference are underway, including consultations with our international and domestic partners to consider possible themes and outcomes. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office is working closely with the Prime Minister's Special Envoy for FoRB, Fiona Bruce MP, on this and wider conference planning.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
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 help ensure good human rights practice within multinational companies.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The Government is clear that it expects all UK businesses to respect human rights throughout their operations, in line with the UN Guiding Principles. The UK was the first State to produce a National Action Plan and we continue to develop our approach in line with Modern Slavery Act 2015. In January 2021, the UK Government announced that financial penalties will be introduced for organisations who fail to meet their statutory obligations to publish annual modern slavery statements. We have also enhanced Companies Act reporting (2013, 2016).
The UK is signatory to the 1976 OECD Declaration on International Investment and Multi-National Enterprises, which adopted the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (the Guidelines). The Guidelines are a set of voluntary principles and standards for businesses to encourage responsible business practices, including human rights, labour standards and environment. The UK operates a National Contact Point (UK NCP) to promote the Guidelines and to run a non-judicial grievance mechanism to assess alleged non-compliance with the Guidelines. It also offers a platform for mediation and conciliation. The complaints mechanism can include the examination of instances where abuses of human rights may have occurred. The UK NCP also represents the UK at the OECD Working Party on Responsible Businesses Conduct.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps is she taking to ensure small-scale farmers in climate-vulnerable countries can access UK Aid.
Answered by Vicky Ford
FCDO's existing agriculture portfolio contains programmes that are specifically designed to help smallholder farmers in the most climate vulnerable countries to adopt sustainable and resilient agricultural practices. For example, with UK International Climate Finance (ICF), we are supporting the Commercial Agriculture for Smallholders and Agribusiness programme (CASA) and the Global Agriculture and Food Security Programme (GAFSP) which help countries, producer organisations and agri-businesses to address climate change through the adoption of mitigation and adaptation technologies and much-needed related capacity building. These programmes focus exclusively on activities involving and benefiting smallholders, in particular supporting their adaptation and resilience. GAFSP in addition focuses exclusively on the poorest and most climate-vulnerable countries.
The most recent review of the wider FCDO portfolio on agriculture (available at https://www.casaprogramme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/CAPR-2020_May_Final.pdf) found that 20 million farmers had their income improved (earning a total of £320 million more) and four million smallholders increased their agricultural productivity over the period under consideration.
The UK has committed to doubling its spend on International Climate Finance (ICF) to £11.6 billion over the next five years and as we mobilise these funds we will continue to support the most vulnerable people, including farmers, adapt and build resilience to the impacts of climate change.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
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 integrate support for victims of sexual violence as a result of their religion or belief within UK foreign and development policy.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The Foreign Secretary has put ending violence against women and girls at the heart of UK foreign and development policy. Through our £67.5 million investment to the What Works to Prevent Violence: Impact at Scale programme, we are scaling up proven violence prevention approaches globally, including sexual violence, for the most at-risk groups of women and girls.
In 2020, Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon, Minister of State for Human Rights, launched the Declaration of Humanity, which unites multiple faiths and beliefs to challenge damaging societal norms and calls for support for survivors of sexual violence internationally.
Bilaterally, Ministers and officials regularly raise specific cases of concern, and discuss practices and laws that discriminate on the basis of religion or belief.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
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 prevent sexual violence against women because of their religion or belief.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The Foreign Secretary has put ending violence against women and girls at the heart of UK foreign and development policy. Through our £67.5 million investment to the What Works to Prevent Violence: Impact at Scale programme, we are scaling up proven violence prevention approaches globally, including sexual violence, for the most at-risk groups of women and girls.
In 2020, Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon, Minister of State for Human Rights, launched the Declaration of Humanity, which unites multiple faiths and beliefs to challenge damaging societal norms and calls for support for survivors of sexual violence internationally.
Bilaterally, Ministers and officials regularly raise specific cases of concern, and discuss practices and laws that discriminate on the basis of religion or belief.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
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 the UK delivers on its obligations for annual climate funding for people in lower-income countries.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The UK Government provided £9.8 billion International Climate Finance (ICF) between April 2011 and March 2021. We are committed to providing a further £11.6 billion between 2021/22 and 2025/26 (a doubling of our ICF spend in the previous five years), with an extra £1 billion in 2025 if the economy grows as forecast. We publish on an annual basis the results that our ICF achieves 2021 UK Climate Finance Results - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) and details of our ICF spending are reported to, and published by, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat biennially (Fourth Biennial Reports - Annex I | UNFCCC).