Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between James Sunderland and Dominic Raab

Wednesday 29th June 2022 Commons Chamber

[James Sunderland (Bracknell) (Con)]

I was privileged last week to attend the malaria summit in Kigali. Even today, malaria remains the biggest single killer of mankind ever, and 1.7 billion people live every day under its shadow of misery. But we are on the cusp of something really special: recent advances, education and our world-leading British vaccines can now eradicate it forever. Can my right hon. Friend please confirm that the UK will fulfil its full commitment to the Global Fund?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

I know from working in the Foreign Office just how powerful the Global Fund is; it is a very high-performing international organisation. My hon. Friend will know that since 2002 we have been the third largest donor, so we have stepped up to the plate. The UK has not yet determined our pledge for the seventh replenishment, but the Foreign Secretary will have heard loud and clear my hon. Friend’s advocacy in that regard.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between James Sunderland and Dominic Raab

Tuesday 24th May 2022 Commons Chamber

[Dominic Raab]

My hon. Friend is right to highlight the particular vulnerability of children in such cases. The courts already have the power to prioritise cases, for example those with a particular risk of the victim or a witness being intimidated. The Department for Education’s statutory guidance for schools and others makes it clear that they can take appropriate measures to safeguard children, which can include transfers to and from schools where necessary.

[James Sunderland]

The Thames Valley police and crime commissioner, Matthew Barber, provides excellent support to victims of crime through his office’s Victims First support service. One challenge that he faces is that the Ministry of Justice does not allow victims funding to be used to support victims of antisocial behaviour. That is a real concern for my constituents in Bracknell. Might the Secretary of State be willing to review the policy?

[Dominic Raab]

I pay tribute to the work of Commissioner Matthew Barber. In 2022-23, we are providing PCCs with £69 million of core funding to commission victim support services. How they allocate the funding is at their discretion, based on their assessment of local need, but it can include services to support victims of ASB that reaches the threshold of a criminal offence. As my hon. Friend will know, we are consulting on new powers for courts to consider community impact assessments in trials so that the blight and oppression that antisocial behaviour causes in whole communities can be properly factored in.

DFID-FCO Merger

Debate between James Sunderland and Dominic Raab

Thursday 18th June 2020 Commons Chamber

[Dominic Raab]

I had thought we were on the cusp of a very serious question but it descended into political cut and thrust. Actually what we are really focused on, and what this crisis has proved, is that necessity is the mother of innovation and invention. We have to try to drive greater effectiveness not just domestically as we tackle coronavirus but in our international effort, and that is what we are focused on.

[James Sunderland (Bracknell) (Con)]

I welcome the merger for all the benefits of co-ordination and synergy that it promises. Could the Foreign Secretary please confirm that it will also come with a more comprehensive strategy for combining all the multiple threads of soft and hard power?

[Dominic Raab]

We have of course taken this merger decision now because we can see that we need to be as effective as we possibly can be during this coronavirus challenge. Equally, it will help to galvanise the integrated view that will bring into play all the wider security factors that my hon. Friend mentioned.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between James Sunderland and Dominic Raab

Wednesday 22nd April 2020 Commons Chamber

[Dominic Raab]

The hon. Gentleman is right to refer to the business interruption loans. We made grants of up to £25,000 available for small businesses. I understand the point he makes about the sector in his constituency. We have made changes to the loan scheme, principally to make it quicker to access, and 12,000 loans have now been approved. I know that the Chancellor is looking carefully at the steel sector in the hon. Gentleman’s constituency, and at all those who are not directly benefiting from this particular scheme to ensure that in the round we are providing the measures that we need in a targeted way to support all the different crucial elements of the economy.

[James Sunderland (Bracknell) (Con)]

One of the most striking features of the past few weeks has been the way in which so many public, private and voluntary organisations have bent themselves out of shape to deal with the pandemic, not least in my own constituency, for which I give a heartfelt thank you. Will the First Secretary join me in commending the remarkable resilience, initiative and spirit of the British people? Will he also outline what he sees as the essential ingredients for getting our country through this?

[Dominic Raab]

I thank my hon. Friend. We are facing a challenge we have not faced for decades in recent memory, and it is a national effort and a team effort. The critical ingredient is that the country comes together, as it has done, in this incredible national effort and national mission to defeat coronavirus. Like him, I pay tribute not just to the NHS workers, the carers and all those on the frontline, but to those in the voluntary sector and the people who we are understanding more and more are really also part of the key workers in our economy and our society—the delivery drivers, the people working in the supermarkets and all of those who are steering us through this time of national crisis. Together, we can rise to the challenge, and I am absolutely confident that we will rise to the challenge and come back, as one United Kingdom, stronger than ever.

Covid-19

Debate between James Sunderland and Dominic Raab

Tuesday 17th March 2020 Commons Chamber

[Dominic Raab]

The hon. Gentleman is right to say that we must learn from and try to understand more about covid-19 and what its impact will be in the UK, based on the experience that we are seeing in real time across the world, and that is being fed in via scientists and the Department of Health and Social Care. We are ensuring that we have practical advice at the end of that pipeline, which is why we have taken the decision on travel advice today.

[James Sunderland (Bracknell) (Con)]

Will the Secretary of State please reassure the House that appropriate medical support is readily available for British Government and military personnel overseas, and that specialist medical evacuation will be available for them in extremis?