Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to help protect children in Turkey and Syria following the earthquake.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell
The UK responded immediately to provide life-saving support to people in Turkey and Syria. On 15 February the UK committed a package of support to address the urgent humanitarian needs including £25 million in new overseas aid to fund emergency relief. The UK has committed £5 million match funding to the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) appeal to support British aid organisations. DEC Members such as Save the Children have supported children in Turkey and Syria in many ways such as providing psychosocial support for children experiencing trauma, reuniting children with families where possible and creating safe spaces for women and children.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the long term effect of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria on the economy of that region; and what steps his Department is taking to help support that economy.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell
The UK responded immediately to provide life-saving support to the people of Turkey and Syria.
As we move out of the emergency response phase, the UK will continue to stand in solidarity with Turkey and Syria and continue to look at what more we can do to support the recovery effort.
In Syria, the additional support the UK is providing will supplement our existing support. Since 2012, the UK has provided over £3.8 billion to the regional Syria Crisis, our largest response to a single humanitarian crisis. Our response to the earthquake in Syria will continue to focus on providing urgent life-saving and life-sustaining assistance to those in need.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with the Egyptian Government on the release of British national Alaa Abd el-Fattah.
Answered by David Rutley
The UK Government makes regular representations about Mr Alaa Abd El Fattah's imprisonment, welfare and lack of consular access, and will continue to do so until his case is resolved. The Foreign Secretary has raised the case with Egyptian Foreign Minister Shoukry on several occasions. The Prime Minister raised consular access with President Sisi on 7 November and the Minister for the Middle East and North Africa has also raised Mr El-Fattah's case on a number of occasions, most recently on 5 December with the Egyptian Ambassador. The British Embassy Cairo also raise his case regularly with the Egyptian authorities.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many (a) non-disclosure and (b) other confidentiality agreements relating to (i) employment, (ii) bullying, (iii) misconduct and (iii) harassment cases have been agreed by their Department in each year since 1 January 2010; and how much money from the public purse has been spent on (A) legal costs and (B) financial settlements for such agreements in each year since 1 January 2010.
Answered by David Rutley
The numbers for non-disclosure and other confidentiality agreements are set out in the table below for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development up until the departments merged in September 2020, and for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office since then.
In 2010 and 2011 it was standard practice in DFID to arrange for compromise agreements to be put in place for staff who, by agreement, left the organisation under the Civil Service Compensation Scheme. These agreements included a confidentiality clause as a matter of course.
Year | FCO (until 1 September 2020) | DFID (until 1 September 2020) | FCDO (from 2 September 2020) |
2010 | Not held | 11 | |
2011 | Not held | 7 | |
2012 | Not held | Fewer than five | |
2013 | None | Fewer than five | |
2014 | None | None | |
2015 | None | None | |
2016 | None | None | |
2017 | None | None | |
2018 | None | None | |
2019 | None | None | |
2020 | None | None | Fewer than five * |
2021 | None | ||
2022 | None |
*No financial settlements were involved. It is not possible to identify the proportion of legal costs which related to non-disclosure.
The FCDO follows Government policy which, since 2015 has been clear that confidentiality clauses should not be used to prevent staff from raising or discussing allegations of bullying, harassment and discrimination.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many complaints by UK-based civil servants of (a) bullying and (b) harassment were recorded in his Department in each year since 2019.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan
Year | Bullying | Harassment (including sexual harassment) |
2019 | 11 | 9 |
2020 | 10 | 6 |
2021 | 8 | 5 |
2022 | 5 | 3 |
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, when the cost of assisting refugees within the UK is removed, what proportion of the UK's Gross National Income is spent on Official Development Assistance.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell
The latest data available is the provisional data for 2021 UK Official Development Assistance (ODA) (see table 1). Final figures for 2021 UK ODA spend will be published on 23rd November 2022. Provisional and final official UK ODA spend data for 2022 will be published as normal in the Spring and Autumn of 2023 respectively.
Table 1. UK (Gross National Income) GNI estimates, UK Net ODA and ODA: GNI ratios including and excluding refugees in donor countries; 2021
UK GNI £million | Total UK ODA £million | Refugees in Donor Countries (IDRC) £million | ODA/GNI % | ODA/GNI excl. IDRC % |
| 2,305,142 | 11,496 | 898 | 0.50 | 0.46 |
Source:
Statistics on International Development, Provisional UK Aid Spend 2021
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statistics-on-international-development-provisional-uk-aid-spend-2021
OECD DAC: ODA Levels in 2021- Preliminary data
https://www.oecd.org/dac/financing-sustainable-development/development-finance-standards/ODA-2021-summary.pdf
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has had discussions with LGBT activists and organisations from the (a) Cayman Islands and (b) Bermuda where the right to marriage for same-sex couples is refused by their respective Governments.
Answered by David Rutley
The inhabited British Overseas Territories are separate, largely self-governing jurisdictions with their own democratically elected representatives. The relationship with the Overseas Territories is based on partnership. Policy on marriage law is an area of devolved responsibility.
The majority of Overseas Territories have legal recognition and protection for same sex relationships, either through marriage or through civil partnerships as is the case in Bermuda. In 2020 the Governor of the Cayman Islands enacted civil partnership legislation to recognise same-sex partnerships in order to comply with the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal. The UK Government continues to engage with and encourage remaining Territories that have not put in place arrangements to recognise and protect same sex relationships, to do so.
The UK Government remains open to further engagement with LGBT+ activists and organisations across the Overseas Territories to support increased recognition and protections for same-sex relationships in the Overseas Territories.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether the UK is on course to spend 0.3 per cent of GNI as Official Development Assistance outside the UK in 2022.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell
The UK Government is prioritising essential overseas aid funding, while also meeting needs of people seeking sanctuary in the UK from conflict in Ukraine and Afghanistan. We are working through how best to manage ODA budget pressures with HM Treasury and bring certainty to our development programmes, in line with the timing of the Autumn Statement. All UK aid continues to be spent in line with the international rules on what constitutes ODA set by the OECD's Development Assistance Committee. Provisional and final official UK ODA spend data for 2022 will be published as normal in the Spring and Autumn of 2023 respectively.