Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, how many and what proportion of staff in his Department work from home.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Hybrid working is available to staff as a means of working across the FCDO, where business needs and roles allow. This means that staff can work from home for up to 40 percent of their contracted hours. The FCDO does not keep a central record of the number of our staff working from home. These arrangements are monitored and reviewed regularly. There are many staff who are unable to work from home due to the nature of their role.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, how much funding his Department has provided to Stonewall in each year since 2019.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The FCDO works closely with a range of civil society organisations to defend the human rights of LGBT+ people around the world. Since 2018, Stonewall has delivered a number of projects in support of UK foreign policy priorities. This has included supporting the UK and Argentina as one of three civil society co-chairs of the Equal Rights Coalition; supporting LGBT+ women globally; addressing violence and hate crime in the Western Balkans and Asia and evacuating vulnerable LGBT+ people from Afghanistan. The FCDO withdrew from Stonewall Diversity Champions programme in 2022 and have not funded any Stonewall programmes related to internal diversity and inclusion since, to ensure value for money to the taxpayer.
Financial Year | Programme Spend |
2018/19 | £102,969 |
2019/20 | £114,944 |
2020/21 | £152,067 |
2021/22 | £585,436 |
2022/23 | £173,034 |
2023/24 (as of 29/01/2024) | £0 |
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what support his Department provides to the British nationals resident in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
In accordance with the rest of the international community, with the sole exception of Turkey, the UK does not recognise the self-declared "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" as an independent state. The UK recognises the Republic of Cyprus as the sovereign authority of Cyprus. The FCDO publishes travel advice which provides guidance on the most relevant issues for British nationals visiting or resident in Cyprus. This includes information about the north of Cyprus.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of aid supplied to Gaza; and what steps he is taking to ensure that aid is not utilised by Hamas.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK Government has recently announced £30 million of humanitarian funding to Gaza; and has sent more than 51 tonnes of emergency relief for civilians. This funding will support the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and others to respond to critical food, water, health and shelter needs. The UNRWA is currently the only agency able to operate at scale in Gaza. This is in addition to the £27 million of bilateral funding for FY 23/24 to the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs).
All FCDO partners in the OPTs operate with enhanced sensitivity requirements and additional safeguards to protect against the possibility of aid diversion. These safeguards include measures on verification and mapping of downstream partners, non-payment of local taxes and enhanced due diligence processes.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 12 June 2023 to Question 187040 on China: Abortion, whether his Department has put safeguards in place to ensure that UK aid given to (a) International Planned Parenthood Federation and (b) United Nations Family Planning Association is not used to fund abortions in China.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
As the answer to Question 187040 made clear, no UK overseas development assistance funds forced or coercive abortions in China. We have a stringent due diligence process in our programming and partnerships to ensure our sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) interventions are rights-based, voluntary and legal. We expect and have full confidence in our partners, including International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), to align with this approach.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department holds searchable IT archives (a) of Regulatory Impact Analysis estimates for EU-sourced regulation and (b) employing the search term out of scope relating to changes to regulatory burdens that could not be reviewed due to EU origin.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
Regulatory impact assessments are the responsibility of the Better Regulation Executive in DBT. I refer the Hon. Member for South Holland and The Deepings to the answers given to him by my Hon. Friend for Thirsk and Malton, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, the Minister for Enterprise, Markets and Small Business on 22 May, UIN: 183010 and 183009.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much UK aid has been allocated to Oxfam in each year since 2017.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
Statistics on International Development (SID) is the official source of data on UK Official Development Assistance (ODA). SID only reports the first delivery partner in the delivery chain (first tier delivery partner), in line with The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reporting directives, therefore the figures below do not capture funding to Oxfam where it is a delivery partner further down the delivery chain. The amount of UK bilateral ODA given to Oxfam as a first-tier delivery partner from 2017-2021 (the latest year for which data has been published) is shown in the table below.
Table 1: Total UK bilateral ODA (£) to Oxfam as first-tier delivery partner (2017-2021)
2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
£10,017,499 | £11,785,871 | £10,826,373 | £999,657 | £681,803 |
Source: Statistics for International Development https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-on-international-development
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
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 whether UK overseas development assistance provided to (a) International Planned Parenthood Federation, (b) United Nations Family Planning Association and (c) other organisations was used to carry out forced and coercive abortions in China.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
No UK overseas development assistance funds forced or coercive abortions in China. The UK proudly defends and promotes universal and comprehensive Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) globally, providing international aid to trusted multilateral organisations such as International and Planned Parenthood Federation and United Nations Family Planning Association to help deliver this important work and help people, especially women and girls, have control of their bodies. We have a stringent due diligence process in our programming and partnerships to ensure our SRHR interventions are rights-based, voluntary and legal. We expect and have full confidence in our partners to align with this approach.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has had recent discussions with his Chinese counterpart on forced and coercive abortions in China.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We are aware of reports of forced abortions and forced sterilisation in Xinjiang, and we regularly raise the situation in Xinjiang with the Chinese authorities at the highest levels. Most recently, the Foreign Secretary did so with the Vice President of China on 5 May 2023.
The UK Government has led international efforts to hold China to account; on 31 October 2022, concerted UK lobbying efforts helped secure the support of a record 50 countries for a joint statement on China's human rights violations in Xinjiang. We will continue to act with international partners to bring about a change in China's actions, and immediately end its appalling human rights violations in Xinjiang.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many people were employed by his Department to work on matters relating to equality, diversity and inclusivity in (a) 2021 and (b) 2022.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The FCDO has a Staff Networks Partnership Agreement to ensure our policies and operations are informed by employee insights, including on inclusion, diversity and equality, alongside quantitative and qualitative Human Resource (HR) data managed by HR Directorate. In 2021, the FCDO employed three staff members to mainly or exclusively work on equality, diversity and inclusion matters. During 2022, there were a total of four posts in the FCDO.