Asked by: Douglas Alexander (Labour - Paisley and Renfrewshire South)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what requests the UK has received for additional support from the Kurdistan regional government.
Answered by Lord Hammond of Runnymede
The UK remains committed to the stability and security of Iraq. To date we have provided substantial support to the Iraqi government and Kurdish authorities to combat the ISIL threat, including airstrikes, Intelligence, surveillance and targeting support, training and lethal and non-lethal military equipment.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) submit formal requests for assistance to the international coordination cell in Erbil, the Organisation for Security Cooperation Iraq (OSC-I), on a weekly basis.
We continue to look at ways in which we can support Kurdish forces, in coordination with the federal government of Iraq, and consider additional requests for equipment or training as they are received.
Asked by: Douglas Alexander (Labour - Paisley and Renfrewshire South)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his Russian counterpart on the interception of Russian aircraft by NATO forces over the Baltic.
Answered by Lord Hammond of Runnymede
The UK has made no direct representations to the government of Russia on this issue. We strongly support recent comments made by North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) Secretary General Stoltenberg calling on Russia to obey the norms of international air traffic. On 2 December NATO Foreign Ministers also agreed on the need to maintain contact through NATO/Russia military channels to help ensure that Russian military flights, or naval activities, do not give rise to unintended accidents or escalation.
Asked by: Douglas Alexander (Labour - Paisley and Renfrewshire South)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what changes his Department is planning to the number of its staff based in Afghanistan.
Answered by Lord Hammond of Runnymede
The total number of UK civilian staff in Afghanistan, excluding security and logistics personnel, will reduce from approximately 180 staff at present to approximately 110 staff by 2015.
Asked by: Douglas Alexander (Labour - Paisley and Renfrewshire South)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, when he next expects the Friends of Syria Group to meet.
Answered by Lord Hammond of Runnymede
The Core Group of the Friends of Syria countries (UK, USA, France, Germany, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan and United Arab Emirates – also known as the London 11) meets at regular intervals at both senior official and ministerial level. The UK is a leading member and the group most recently met at senior official level on 10 November 2014 in London. There are currently no fixed plans for a next meeting but the group will reconvene when it is appropriate to do so. The group remains committed to helping end the long-running Syrian crisis.
Asked by: Douglas Alexander (Labour - Paisley and Renfrewshire South)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, when he last met Dr Husn Banu Ghazanfar, the Afghan Minister for Women's Affairs.
Answered by Lord Hammond of Runnymede
The Minister of State, my noble Friend the right hon. Baroness Anelay of St Johns, the Minister responsible for human rights, met Dr Husn Banu Ghazanfar during the Women's Rights and Empowerment in Afghanistan Symposium in Oslo on the 23rd November 2014. Dr Ghazanfar also met the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, my noble Friend the right hon. Baroness Northover, on 3 December at the Ayenda Conference in London along with members of the Afghan Civil Society which was an associate event of the London Conference on Afghanistan. Unfortunately, Dr Ghazanfar’s programme was cut short and she was unable to have further meetings as planned. The UK Government is working closely with the government of Afghanistan, including Dr Ghazanfar, to improve the status of women and girls in Afghanistan, so that they can participate as fully as possible in a future, peaceful Afghan state.Asked by: Douglas Alexander (Labour - Paisley and Renfrewshire South)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what support her Department gives to the Afghan government to promote educational opportunities among women and girls in Afghanistan.
Answered by Justine Greening
DFID is providing £48 million through its Girls Education Challenge Fund to enable some 180,000 girls in some of the poorest rural and hard to reach areas of Afghanistan to have better access to a quality education.
In addition to this funding the UK supported the Afghan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF), a World-Bank managed multi-donor fund, a proportion of which is used to support education.
In 2012/13 there were more than 2.5 million Afghan girls attending school compared to virtually no girls at school in 2001.
Asked by: Douglas Alexander (Labour - Paisley and Renfrewshire South)
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 effectiveness of the efforts made by the Qatari authorities to comply with UN Security Council Resolution 2170 on tackling support for ISIL.
Answered by Lord Hammond of Runnymede
The British Government is determined to make rapid progress on implementation of UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 2170, to prevent illicit finance reaching any groups associated with Al Qaeda or ISIL, and on UNSCR 2178 to tackle the flow of foreign fighters. In doing so, the UK is working with like-minded partners. The Qatari authorities share our belief that ISIL needs to be defeated, including through denying it access to funding. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth East (Mr Ellwood) discussed these issues with the Qatari Foreign Minister, Dr Khalid Al Attiyah, during his recent visit to Doha on 12 November. He welcomed their efforts to tackle terrorist financing through the introduction of a Charities Commission to prevent abuse of charities, and look to them to work with us on this agenda in the future.
Asked by: Douglas Alexander (Labour - Paisley and Renfrewshire South)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent progress he has made on reopening HM Embassy in Tehran.
Answered by Lord Hammond of Runnymede
The Government remains committed to reopening the British Embassy in Tehran once we have resolved the outstanding steps required to bring the Embassy back to a functional level and made progress on arrangements for re-establishing a visa service in Tehran. We are in ongoing discussion with the Iranian government to identify solutions on both issues.
Asked by: Douglas Alexander (Labour - Paisley and Renfrewshire South)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, when HM Embassy in Tehran will be reopened.
Answered by Lord Hammond of Runnymede
The Government remains committed to reopening the British Embassy in Tehran once we have resolved the outstanding steps required to bring the Embassy back to a functional level and made progress on arrangements for re-establishing a visa service in Tehran. We are in ongoing discussion with the Iranian government to identify solutions on both issues.
Asked by: Douglas Alexander (Labour - Paisley and Renfrewshire South)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what issues remain to be addressed before the Government can reopen HM Embassy in Tehran.
Answered by Lord Hammond of Runnymede
The Government remains committed to reopening the British Embassy in Tehran once we have resolved the outstanding steps required to bring the Embassy back to a functional level and made progress on arrangements for re-establishing a visa service in Tehran. We are in ongoing discussion with the Iranian government to identify solutions on both issues.