Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
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 effect of the reduction in the Official Development Assistance budget (a) from 0.7 per cent to 0.5 per cent and (b) as a result of the UK’s decreased GDP on Government support for immunisation programmes for children.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The UK Government remains committed to supporting routine immunisation programmes as part of our manifesto commitment to end preventable deaths of mothers, new-borns and children.
The Government has committed £1.65 billion over the next five years to support Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, to immunise 300 million children and save up to 8 million lives.
This commitment is unchanged following the recent reductions to the ODA budget.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
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 effect of the reduction in the Official Development Assistance budget (a) from 0.7 per cent to 0.5 per cent and (b) as a result of the UK’s decreased GDP on the level of Government support for nutrition-relevant programmes.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The seismic impact of the pandemic on the UK economy has forced us to take tough but necessary decisions, including temporarily reducing the overall amount we spend on ODA. The UK remains firmly committed to helping the world's poorest people. Despite next year's adjustment, latest figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) confirm the UK will remain one of the most generous G7 aid donors as a percentage of GNI in 2021.
Preventing and treating malnutrition will remain important for achieving priorities on global health, including ending preventable deaths among mothers, newborns and children. It will also be an important priority for our work on humanitarian response. The Department will begin a rigorous internal prioritisation process and we will update on this in due course including how this relates to the nutrition funding.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
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 effect of the reduction in the Official Development Assistance budget (a) from 0.7 per cent to 0.5 per cent and (b) as a result of the UK’s decreased GDP on the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative.
Answered by Nigel Adams
The Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative (PSVI) remains a top priority for the UK Government. We are the only government in the world to have a Prime Minister's Special Representative as well as a dedicated team and funding focused on tackling conflict-related sexual violence. Our core PSVI objectives are strengthening justice for survivors of sexual violence in conflict and holding the perpetrators to account; supporting all survivors of conflict-related sexual violence and tackling the stigma they face; preventing conflict-related sexual violence through engagement with faith, media and other stakeholders. No decisions have been taken on FCDO budget allocations for the financial year 2021/22. PSVI is a policy campaign to raise awareness of and encourage global action on, tackling conflict-related sexual violence through diplomacy, advocacy and convening power. It uses modest but catalytic programme funds, not large-scale programming, to make progress on this agenda.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
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 effect of the reduction in the Official Development Assistance budget (a) from 0.7 per cent to 0.5 per cent and (b) as a result of the UK’s decreased GDP on Government funding for UN and civil society programmes to end child marriage.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The seismic impact of the pandemic has forced us to take tough decisions, including temporarily reducing our aid budget. We will remain a world-leading aid donor. We will spend more than £10 billion next year to fight poverty, tackle climate change and improve global health. We will reform how aid is spent across Government to deliver even better results for the money we spend. Combined with our wider diplomatic work, this will ensure we remain a force for good next year and beyond.
We remain committed to the goal of ending child marriage, including as part of our work to deliver the Prime Minister's commitment to champion 12 years of quality education for all girls. Decisions on UK ODA allocations will be made following a cross-government process led by the Foreign Secretary.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
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 effect of the reduction in the Official Development Assistance budget (a) from 0.7 per cent to 0.5 per cent and (b) as a result of the UK’s decreased GDP on Government support for programmes supporting people to gain access to clean water or improved sanitation.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The seismic impact of the pandemic has forced us to take tough decisions, including temporarily reducing our aid budget. We will remain a world leading aid donor. We will spend more than £10 billion next year to fight poverty, tackle climate change and improve global health. We will reform how aid is spent across Government to deliver even better results for the money we spend. Aid has too often lacked coherence, oversight or appropriate accountability. Combined with our wider diplomatic work, this will ensure we remain a force for good next year and beyond.
The Government is continuing to ensure that water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) plays a full role in contributing to our commitments. We will do this by supporting global leadership in the sector, strengthening sector systems, and ongoing COVID-19 response activities. Our work on WASH builds on existing progress and the UK Government can confirm that the target of reaching at least 60 million people with improved water or sanitation by December 2020 has been met.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessments his Department made of the potential effectiveness of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons for (a) improving the international security and (b) increasing trust and transparency prior to the Government's decision not to ratify that treaty.
Answered by James Cleverly - Home Secretary
The UK is committed to the long-term goal of a world without nuclear weapons, in line with our obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The Government firmly believes that the best way to achieve a world without nuclear weapons is through gradual multilateral disarmament negotiated using a step-by-step approach that strengthens trust and transparency under the NPT. The UK will not sign or ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) as we do not believe that this treaty will bring us closer to a world without such weapons. The TPNW fails to address the security obstacles that must first be overcome to achieve lasting global nuclear disarmament. It will not improve the international security environment or increase trust and transparency, and risks undermining the NPT.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions he has had with his Spanish counterpart on the disqualification of Quim Torra as President of Catalonia.
Answered by Wendy Morton
This is a matter for Spain and the Spanish courts. The Foreign Secretary has had no discussions with his Spanish counterparts on this matter.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, when the Government plans to publish details of the governance architecture of the new department responsible for the UK’s aid budget.
Answered by James Duddridge
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) was formally established on 2 September under the leadership of the Foreign Secretary to meet the objectives of the UK's ambitious international agenda.
On 3 August, Sir Philip Barton was named as the Permanent Under-Secretary for the department, who in consultation with the Foreign Secretary appointed a new team of Directors General. The Permanent Under-Secretary will be the Accounting Officer in the new department.
Further details on governance arrangements and board structures are being carefully considered and will be published in due course.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if his Department will publish a response to the 10 recommendations set out in UNICEF UK’s September 2020 report entitled A Future at Risk.
Answered by Wendy Morton
I welcome the publication of the UNICEF UK report 'A Future at Risk', it presents a comprehensive set of recommendations and a rich set of resources to highlight the negative impact COVID 19 has had on education and health in developing countries. Many of the recommendations highlighted in the report are closely aligned with FCDO priorities as we build back from COVID-19.
The UK is committed to ensuring children around the world return to school when it is safe to do so. We have adapted our bilateral education programmes in 18 countries in response to the pandemic and have stepped up funding for education including a £5 million uplift to the Education Cannot Wait fund for emergency education in fragile contexts, and over £5m of new funding to UNHCR to enable over 5500 teachers to provide vital education for children in 10 refugee-hosting countries over the crucial next seven months. We are also getting behind UNICEF's Reopening Better Campaign, both globally and in country.
The UK is committed to supporting developing countries' health systems to respond to COVID-19 and to achieving the health-related SDGs. We will do this with a particular focus on ending the preventable deaths of mothers, new-born babies and children by 2030 and also through increasing UK leadership on malaria. The UK remains committed to preventing and treating malnutrition, including work with the Government of Japan to ensure the 2021 Tokyo Nutrition for Growth Summit is a success, and advancing and defending comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights. The UK is actively working through the ACT-Accelerator and its partners to realise the aim of ensuring that COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and tests, once available, are accessible to all who need them.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, when his Department will publish its planned spending distribution for UK Official Development Assistance.
Answered by James Cleverly - Home Secretary
As usual, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office's (FCDO) National Statistics publication - 'Statistics on International Development' will provide a full breakdown of UK Official Development Assistance spend (for the previous calendar year).
The FCDO planned programme spend for 2021/22 will be published in the FCDO annual report in July 2021.