Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what support her Department is providing to the (a) Maltese and (b) Italian authorities to help deter and prevent boats carrying illegal migrants from reaching Europe.
Answered by James Cleverly - Home Secretary
The UK and Italy have a regular dialogue on migration and last met in February 2020. The UK and Malta signed a bilateral MoU on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking in December 2018, and a UK-Malta Migration dialogue took place on 27 July led by the UK's Migration and Modern Slavery Envoy.
The UK Government has a comprehensive whole-of-route approach to global migration, working in countries of origin and transit to address the drivers of migration, reduce the need of migrants to leave their home country or to enable migrants to stay in a safe third country where possible. This whole of route approach is the only way to achieve long-term and sustainable reductions in irregular migration.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to the Answer of 15 March 2019 to Question 231428, since what year his Department has used that single source of data on illegal abortions overseas; and what the cost to the public purse has been of tackling illegal abortions overseas in 2019.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The UK Government uses a range of data sources and publications to inform our policy on how to tackle unsafe abortion, as cited in our published position. The UK Government has used and reported on the Guttmacher Institute estimates in our Single Departmental Plan Family Planning sector page since July 2018.
DFID’s bilateral and multi-country programmes take an integrated approach in order to meet a wide range of women’s reproductive health needs. For example, providing a woman with holistic care for gender-based violence, HIV counselling, safe-abortion care and information on family planning. Because of the integrated nature of this work, it is not possible to provide a break-down of funding on safe abortion services alone. The aim of the UK Government’s work on sexual and reproductive health and rights overseas is to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortions, increase the use of voluntary family planning, and give women control over their own bodies and lives.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if he will publish his Department's detailed country policy analyses pertaining to the Effectiveness Evaluation of the Prevention of Maternal Deaths from Unwanted Pregnancy Programme.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
The Department for International Development (DFID) published the Evaluation of the Prevention of Maternal Deaths from Unwanted Pregnancy Programme (found here: https://devtracker.dfid.gov.uk/projects/GB-1-201518/documents) together with the management response. These include a number of country-specific recommendations which have been disseminated. No other country analysis was undertaken by DFID, in relation to the Programme.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that there is (a) robust decision making in respect of reducing illegal abortions overseas and (b) no conflict of interest between Planned Parenthood which receives funding from his Department to reduce those abortions and the Guttmacher Institute which was founded by Planned Parenthood and is his Department's sole provider of figures on such abortions.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
The UK Government’s policy on safe abortion (found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/safe-and-unsafe-abortion-uks-policy-position-on-safe-and-unsafe-abortion-in-developing-countries) takes an evidence-based, public health approach that aims to reduce death and disability caused by unsafe abortions. The UK is clear that the best way to avoid abortion is through giving women information and contraception, so they can decide whether, when and how many children to have. Therefore, the primary aim and vast majority of our investment in reproductive health is to increase uptake of voluntary family planning, which helps reduce demand for abortion.
The UK funds the International Planned Parenthood Federation to work in developing countries, rather than the Planned Parenthood Federation of America which founded, but is now separate from, the Guttmacher Institute. There is no conflict of interest arising from UK Government support.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent steps she has taken to ensure the effectiveness Official Development Assistance.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
Every project in DFID is rigorously appraised for efficiency and likely effectiveness before approval and is assessed against a robust monitoring framework to ensure it remains cost effective. The Independent Commission for Aid Impact said that DFID’s systems “improve the return on UK investment in aid” and recognised that DFID is “a global champion on Value for Money”. DFID is committed to supporting other government departments strengthen the quality of their aid spending and maximising their impact on poverty through an extensive offer of support.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much overseas aid the UK provided to (a) Israel and (b) the Palestinian Territories in each of the last five years.
Answered by Alistair Burt
Israel is not eligible to receive official development assistance (ODA) according to the international definition controlled by the OECD Development Assistance Committee. The following gives United Kingdom (UK) ODA provided to West Bank and Gaza Strip in the last five years.
Year | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 |
UK ODA £million | 92.4 | 119.9 | 85.5 | 56.2 | 99.9 |
Source: Statistics on International Development.
Note: These figures include UK funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and funding from all Government Departments, including the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, with reference to the absence in the UN Global Compact for Migration of the UK’s three main objectives as set out in the Prime Minister’s addresses to the UN General Assembly in 2016 and 2017, whether the Government plans to decline to sign that compact at the forthcoming UN meeting in Morocco.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The UK Government is supportive of the UN’s Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, both as a step forward in international co-operation to tackle irregular migration and as a framework to help us deliver our commitments under the Sustainable Development Goals.
As a leading voice in the negotiations, the UK Government secured positive outcomes in the final text which clearly support the Prime Minister’s main objectives as set out in her speech to the United Nations General Assembly. This includes a clear differentiation between refugees and migrants; the recognition of a State’s right to control their borders and proposals to help States build capacity in this area; and an explicit acknowledgement of States’ responsibility to accept the return of their nationals who no longer have the right to remain elsewhere.