Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
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 implications for enabling humanitarian aid to reach north west Syria of recent reports that (a) the Bab al Hawa border crossing from Turkey to north west Syria has been damaged as a result of the recent earthquakes in that region and (b) Turkish authorities are not allowing rescue teams to access Syria through that border crossing; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The Prime Minister spoke to President Erdogan on 7 February, noting the humanitarian situation over the border in north west Syria, where Turkey plays an important coordinating role. The UK has stressed the importance of aid reaching all those who require it as quickly and efficiently as possible. That is why we called for additional crossings from Turkey as soon as the earthquake struck, and supported expanding humanitarian access to north west Syria even before this new crisis.
We welcome the UN-brokered agreement on 13 February to open additional border crossings into north west Syria for an initial period of three months. It is vital that the UN is able to deliver aid swiftly via these border crossings and we will be working with the UN to verify that this is happening. As of 16 February over 140 trucks have so far crossed to north-west Syria since the earthquakes began.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking with his international counterparts to ensure the Bab al-Hawa border crossing from Turkey to north west Syria is fully operational following damage sustained to that crossing as a result of the recent earthquake in that region.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The Prime Minister spoke to President Erdogan on 7 February, noting the humanitarian situation over the border in north west Syria, where Turkey plays an important coordinating role. The UK has stressed the importance of aid reaching all those who require it as quickly and efficiently as possible. That is why we called for additional crossings from Turkey as soon as the earthquake struck, and supported expanding humanitarian access to north west Syria even before this new crisis.
We welcome the UN-brokered agreement on 13 February to open additional border crossings into north west Syria for an initial period of three months. It is vital that the UN is able to deliver aid swiftly via these border crossings and we will be working with the UN to verify that this is happening. As of 16 February over 140 trucks have so far crossed to north-west Syria since the earthquakes began.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to UK funding for the UNFPA (a) how much in total is allocated to projects in Myanmar and (b) if he will list those projects.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK is a leading healthcare donor in Myanmar, supporting life-saving maternal, newborn and child healthcare needs. Since 2019 the UK has contributed approximately over £3.2 million to Myanmar through The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). This includes funding UNFPA's multi-donor ACCESS to Health Fund project which provides technical support on sexual and reproductive health. It also includes developing the Gender Based Violence Minimum Standards Helpline in Burmese and English.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many registered sex offenders who are UK nationals made requests for consular assistance following their arrest for child sex offences between 2017 and 2022.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Between 2017 and 2022, 24,864 British nationals sought consular assistance after being arrested or detained overseas. Of these, consular records indicate that in 287 of these cases, the arrest may have been related to a potential child sex offence. These cases include arrests that did not subsequently lead to formal charges, prosecution, or conviction.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what proportion of Official Development Assistance will be spent on projects specifically targeted at supporting people with disabilities in (a) this and (b) the next financial year.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
We now have more than a third of all development programmes containing disability inclusive activities. We will update parliament on the spending allocations for the next financial year in due course.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department has provided funding to the College of Policing for the delivery of (a) support and (b) training to Egypt’s police force in each financial year since 1 January 2017.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
FCDO have provided funding to the College of Policing to deliver three training courses to the Egyptian police since 1 January 2017:
1) CT Security Coordinators Course (2017). Trainers from the UK College of Policing (CoP) delivered a Security Coordinators course to Egyptian police officers in the UK. The course provided training on mitigating and responding to terrorism incidents.
2) Police Command and Communications Training (2018). As part of a programme of CT protective security cooperation, this course provided training on emergency response command and control to Egyptian police in the UK.
3) CT Security Coordinators Course (2019). Trainers from the UK College of Policing (CoP) delivered a Security Coordinators course to Egyptian police officers in the UK. The course provided training on mitigating and responding to terrorism incidents.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether training has been provided by the College of Policing to Egypt’s police force in the last five years.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
FCDO have provided funding to the College of Policing to deliver three training courses to the Egyptian police since 1 January 2017:
1) CT Security Coordinators Course (2017). Trainers from the UK College of Policing (CoP) delivered a Security Coordinators course to Egyptian police officers in the UK. The course provided training on mitigating and responding to terrorism incidents.
2) Police Command and Communications Training (2018). As part of a programme of CT protective security cooperation, this course provided training on emergency response command and control to Egyptian police in the UK.
3) CT Security Coordinators Course (2019). Trainers from the UK College of Policing (CoP) delivered a Security Coordinators course to Egyptian police officers in the UK. The course provided training on mitigating and responding to terrorism incidents.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will take steps with the Home Secretary to accelerate the processing of Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme applications made by British Council (a) contractors and (b) contractors' family members; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
The Government received over 11,400 expressions of interest (EOI) under ACRS Pathway 3. We have informed over 200 individuals that they are eligible in principle, subject to passing security checks. Including their dependents, this accounts for over 900 of the 1500 available places on Pathway 3 in year one. We are continuing to work at pace to allocate the remaining places. We will not be commenting on individual cohort numbers while EOIs are still being processed and security checks are outstanding. We will update Parliament once we have completed the allocation process, notified all those who submitted EOIs and have assured data to share.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department has taken to help protect legal professionals working overseas in Hong Kong in the context of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress interpretation of articles 14 and 47 of the Hong Kong National Security Law and recent findings that these professionals have been harassed by pro-Beijing camps.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
The harassment of human rights lawyers in Hong Kong by the authorities is unacceptable and undermines commitments made in the Sino-British Joint Declaration. As a co-signatory, we will continue to hold China to its international obligations. We have called on the Chief Executive to respect rights and freedoms in Hong Kong, and to uphold the rule of law. We will watch closely how the Chief Executive and Hong Kong authorities act to implement the 30 December interpretation of the National Security Law.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much UK (a) bilateral and (b) multilateral Official Development Assistance was spent on (i) LGBT support programmes and (ii) other human rights programmes in Egypt in the 2021 calendar year.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
All bilateral and multilateral UK Official Development Assistance (ODA) spent in Egypt considers human rights, including LGBT and gender rights. Total UK bilateral aid to Egypt was £16.3 million in 2021 as published in November 2022, the 'Statistics on International Development: final UK aid spend 2021' (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statistics-on-international-development-final-uk-aid-spend-2021). It is not possible to directly track UK ODA core funding to multilateral organisations as it is pooled with other donors. The UK uses data on the destination and sector of UK multilateral ODA based on estimates published by the OECD DAC to produce an imputed figure for each destination country. Figures for multilateral spend in Egypt are not yet available.
Egypt is a human rights priority country for the UK. We actively monitor reports of torture and mistreatment in detention of LGBT+ people in Egypt. We regularly raise human rights with the Egyptian Government, which is well aware of our position on LGBT+ rights and we call on the government of Egypt to uphold and protect the rights of everyone in Egypt. Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon most recently raised human rights with the Egyptian Ambassador on the 5 December 2022. We will continue to raise these issues with the Egyptian authorities bilaterally and in conjunction with our international partners.