Syria Crisis: UK Response

Peter Kyle Excerpts

Monday 8th February 2016 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

The UK Parliament is playing its own role in highlighting this issue, which has led to the current pause in the peace talks. In Munich on Thursday, it is vital that the Russians take a long, hard look at their role in being able to make or break the peace talks. At the moment, the actions they are taking are preventing progress—it is as simple as that—on two fronts: one is the ceasefire, and the other is their failure to persuade the Assad regime to allow supplies into key areas under its control. Of the many requests that UN agencies have made to the Assad regime to allow access to such areas, just 10% have been agreed, which is a total disgrace. I hope the Russians will raise that with the Assad regime, which they are doing so much to support.

[Peter Kyle (Hove) (Lab)]

I commend the Secretary of State for the resources that have been allocated to educating children and young people from Syria while they are displaced, which I understand are being channelled almost exclusively through UNICEF. Will she confirm that British aid agencies, which have a lot of experience in this area, are being included in the discussions and that the door to DFID is open so that their expertise can be used and harnessed?

[Justine Greening]

The No Lost Generation initiative was set up with UNICEF, which has done an amazing job in allowing us to scale up this work. Of course, it is now essentially owned by the Governments in Lebanon and Jordan. I have had the privilege to work alongside their Education Ministers to put together the plans that are enabling us to scale up this work to ensure that all children in those countries can get into school. The best suggestion I can make is that those NGOs get in touch with DFID to understand what role they can play in the plans that the Governments of Jordan and Lebanon have to get children back into school.