Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what what discussions she has had with the Nigerian government on the imprisonment of Mubarak Bala for blasphemy; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Vicky Ford
I [Minister Ford] raised concerns about Mr Bala's case, and the severity of his sentence, with Nigeria's Foreign Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama, earlier this month. The British High Commissioner has also engaged with the Kano State Government and the Nigerian President's Chief of Staff, Ibrahim Gambari, to express our concerns. She has made clear the importance of protecting religious minorities, and promoting human rights for all. Officials at the British High Commission have also raised Mr Bala's case with the Nigerian National Human Rights Commission.
We will continue to follow developments in Mr Bala's case closely, and will continue to stress the importance of Mr Bala being treated in full accordance with his human rights, the rule of law, and the Nigerian constitutional right to freedom of religion or belief.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department has taken to identify innovative sources of finance for funding climate-related loss and damage.
Answered by James Duddridge
The UK seeks to enable action to avert, minimise and address loss and damage, particularly in countries most vulnerable to impacts of climate change. As incoming COP 26 Presidency the UK is pressing donors to meet and surpass their commitment to provide $100bn in climate finance to developing countries. The UK has increased its International Climate Finance to £11.6bn over five years. This includes finance for adaptation relevant to averting, minimising and addressing loss and damage.
The UK supports innovative approaches in a number of areas, including disaster risk reduction and support for regional insurance schemes. Most recently, at the G7 Summit, the UK announced £120m of support with Germany committing €125m of funding to regional disaster protection schemes across Africa, South East Asia, the Caribbean and Pacific, to protect the lives and livelihoods of poor and vulnerable people against climate risks. This new funding contributes to the Risk Informed Early Action Partnership (REAP) target of making 1 billion people safer from disasters by 2025. Our commitment to spend £3bn of our ICF on nature also recognises the importance of healthy ecosystems and the role of nature-based solutions in building resilience to the impacts of climate change.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department has taken to identify (a) the needs of UK nationals residing in Spain and (b) how those needs may have changed since the UK left the EU.
Answered by Wendy Morton - Shadow Minister (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Withdrawal Agreement, signed on 24 January 2020, provides citizens with the certainty they need about their rights going forward. It means UK nationals living in Spain before the end of the transition period can continue to live, work, study and access benefits and services broadly as they did before the UK left the EU. Throughout the negotiations, we have sought to understand the unique circumstances of UK nationals living in Spain and continue to use the feedback received from UK nationals to help inform our approach.
The Government has been actively engaging with UK nationals in Spain through our Embassy in Madrid and Consulates across Spain. This has included town hall events; social media outreach; interviews with print media and radio; as well as digital content on gov.uk such as the Living in Guides. We have also launched a multi-million pound communications campaign for UK nationals in the EU, which informs them about the actions they may need to take. To date, there have been over 318 outreach events in Spain. We also maintain a regular dialogue with both the Spanish government and civil society groups.
The Government is also working with third party organisations through the UK Nationals Support Fund to help UK nationals who may struggle to register in Spain. Since May 2020, 126,503 UK nationals have accessed the services of our three grant-funded organisations in Spain. 3,306 people have been directly supported by a caseworker and 1,013 registrations have been submitted on behalf of those who would struggle to do so themselves.