Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what information his Department holds on the number of children expected to be impacted by planned reductions to Official Development Assistance spending on nutrition programmes in 2025-26.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Our 2025/26 Official Development Assistance (ODA) programme allocations reflect the first step as we begin to pivot to a lower ODA budget. An Equalities Impact Assessment (EIA) - which considers impacts on women and girls and wider equalities - was an essential part of how the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) made these decisions. Final 2025/26 ODA programme allocations were published in the FCDO Annual Report & Accounts on 22 July alongside the EIA. As confirmed by the EIA, the allocations process for 2025/26 has protected against disproportionate impacts on women and girls and people living with disabilities.
The UK remains committed to tackling gender inequality around the world and we are placing women and girls at the heart of our international work.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of reductions in ODA on levels of funding for programmes with gender equality objectives.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Our 2025/26 Official Development Assistance (ODA) programme allocations reflect the first step as we begin to pivot to a lower ODA budget. An Equalities Impact Assessment (EIA) - which considers impacts on women and girls and wider equalities - was an essential part of how the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) made these decisions. Final 2025/26 ODA programme allocations were published in the FCDO Annual Report & Accounts on 22 July alongside the EIA. As confirmed by the EIA, the allocations process for 2025/26 has protected against disproportionate impacts on women and girls and people living with disabilities.
The UK remains committed to tackling gender inequality around the world and we are placing women and girls at the heart of our international work.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department plans to publish annual reports on the outcomes of ODA spending on (a) gender equality initiatives and (b) whether the (i) principal and (ii) significant objectives of that spending has been achieved.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
As we transition to spending 0.3 per cent of Gross National Income (GNI) on Official Development Assistance (ODA), the Government is reviewing existing commitments. Detailed decisions on how the ODA budget will be used from 2026/27 to 2028/29 will be informed by impact assessments, ahead of publishing multi-year allocations.
Data on ODA spend is available in the Statistics on International Development publications, which are available for 2023 and provisionally for 2024. Data is available broken down by sector for the 2023 publication, including social sector spending on health and education, and humanitarian aid. Further information and annual reviews on specific programmes, including those with a specific focus on equalities, can be found on GOV.UK's Development Tracker.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office remains steadfast in its commitment to promoting gender equality around the world, and is taking steps to strengthen the integration of gender equality across the Department's work.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department has specified (a) targets and (b) benchmarks for gender equality spending from the ODA budget as a (i) principal and (ii) significant objective.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
As we transition to spending 0.3 per cent of Gross National Income (GNI) on Official Development Assistance (ODA), the Government is reviewing existing commitments. Detailed decisions on how the ODA budget will be used from 2026/27 to 2028/29 will be informed by impact assessments, ahead of publishing multi-year allocations.
Data on ODA spend is available in the Statistics on International Development publications, which are available for 2023 and provisionally for 2024. Data is available broken down by sector for the 2023 publication, including social sector spending on health and education, and humanitarian aid. Further information and annual reviews on specific programmes, including those with a specific focus on equalities, can be found on GOV.UK's Development Tracker.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office remains steadfast in its commitment to promoting gender equality around the world, and is taking steps to strengthen the integration of gender equality across the Department's work.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what plans he has to help (a) advance gender equality and (b) protect women’s and girls’ rights through multilateral negotiations.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer my Hon Friend to the answer I gave him on 9 September to Question 71594.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment the Department has made of the potential merits of funding more programmes that support gender equality as their main objective.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK remains steadfast in its commitment to promoting gender equality around the world, and stands in solidarity with women's rights organisations who are on the frontline of that fight. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) recognises that advancing gender equality and breaking down the barriers faced by women and girls is essential to development and to delivering the missions of this government overseas.
The FCDO is taking steps to strengthen the integration of gender equality across the Department's work. This will ensure we maximise the impacts for women, girls, and marginalised groups across all our spend and through our diplomatic levers, including by driving innovation to generate sustainable funding flows for women's rights.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether any nutrition programmes have had their budget reduced in 2025-26.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The 2025 Spending Review has confirmed the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office's (FCDO) Official Development Assistance (ODA) budget for 2025-26. With the overall reductions to ODA budgets across the Department, there has been some impact to the central nutrition budget but decisions across Posts are yet to be finalised. The FCDO will be able to assess the financial impact of this spending review on nutrition-related spend in 2027 once nutrition-related spend data is consolidated.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he plans to continue the Healthy Women, Children and Newborns approach in (a) 2026 and (b) 2027.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK is committed to supporting global efforts to end preventable maternal, child and newborn deaths by 2030, in line with Sustainable Development Goal targets through the Healthy Women, Children and Newborn approach.
Official Development Assistance (ODA) allocations and the impact on programmes are being worked through. We will be taking a rigorous approach to ensure all ODA delivers value for money. We will set out our spending plans following the completion of resource allocation processes.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what diplomatic steps he is taking with his counterparts in multilateral organisations to (a) defend and (b) advance sexual and reproductive (i) health and (ii) rights.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK works with multilateral organisations including the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), World Health Organisation and the Global Financing Facility, alongside governments and civil society and provides targeted funding, technical partnership and diplomatic engagement to defend and advance sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR).
Earlier this year on International Women's Day, the Foreign Secretary appointed Baroness Harman as Special Envoy for Women and Girls, progressing our foreign policy and development objectives to protect women and girls' rights, including SRHR. In June 2026, she met with international counterparts and programme partners at Wilton Park, expressing the UK's commitment to defending and advancing SRHR.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department is taking steps to support the (a) provision of (i) paediatric and (ii) neonatal services and (b) supply of fuel for (A) incubators and (B) operating theatres in Gaza.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Healthcare in Gaza is on the brink following Israel's expanded military operations. It is appalling that nearly all Gaza's hospitals are damaged or partly destroyed according to the World Health Organization (WHO). We recently announced a £7.5 million package to strengthen medical care for Gazan civilians in Gaza and the wider region, including additional funding for UK-Med and WHO Egypt. The UK is supporting the WHO to deliver vital care to some of the almost 8,000 Gazans who have been medically evacuated to Egypt.
Through our partnership with UK-Med, they have provided over 500,000 patient consultations in Gaza since January 2024. But we urgently need more supplies reaching healthcare facilities and better protections for aid workers.
The UK has also supported delivery of Polio vaccination protecting over 600,000 vulnerable children across Gaza.
The UK continues to demand that a full and unhindered resumption of aid into Gaza takes place immediately, including fuel essential for water supply, hospitals and ambulances. We continue to raise this issue as a matter of priority with our Israeli counterparts.