Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, if he will hold discussions with his Israeli counterpart on taking steps (a) following recent and (b) to help prevent future attacks on aid convoys by Israeli settlers in the West Bank.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell
Attacks by extremists on aid convoys en route to Gaza are appalling. The Foreign Secretary raised his concerns with Israeli Minister Gantz on 16 May.
On 3 May, the Foreign Secretary announced new sanctions on extremist groups and individuals for inciting and perpetrating settler violence in the West Bank
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, what recent discussions he has had with his Israeli counterpart on the security of the UNRWA headquarters in East Jerusalem.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell
The arson attack against UNRWA's headquarters in East Jerusalem was unacceptable. The perpetrators of this attack must be held to account. The UK Head of Mission, together with Heads of Mission in several partner countries, condemned the incident in a joint statement on 10 May.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, how many girls have been supported by UK Official Development Assistance funding to (a) enter and (b) continue education.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell
Girls' education is a UK international development priority. We champion the right of every girl to access 12 years of quality education. Since 2015, UK Official Development Assistance has supported over 10 million girls to gain a decent education. The FCDO supports girls to access education through a number of mechanisms. Our Girls' Education Challenge programme has enabled over 1.6 million of the most marginalised girls to access education. We have 18 bilateral education programmes globally, and we are one of the leading donors to the global funds for Education - the Global Partnership for Education and Education Cannot Wait (ECW). Between 2017 and 2021, ECW supported over 6.9 million children (48 percent girls) to access education.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, what recent assessment he has made of the impact of UK Official Development Assistance spending on the resilience of primary and secondary school education in crisis-affected countries.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell
The FCDO supports resilient education systems through our investments through multilateral partners; bilateral programmes; and education policy influencing. This includes FCDO's position paper, 'Addressing the Climate, Environment, and Biodiversity Crises in and through Girls' Education' (2022), which provides a framework of priority actions to build resilient and climate smart school systems in the face of increasing extreme weather events. The UK recently pledged £80 million to Education Cannot Wait which supports education in crisis-affected countries, including those affected by natural and weather-related disasters. FCDO is also the second largest donor to the Global Partnership for Education, which spends over 60 percent of its funds in fragile and conflict-affected states.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, whether he has had recent discussions with his Israeli counterpart on injuries received by (a) children and (b) civilian men of working age in Gaza hit by Israeli drone fire.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell
The British Government has underlined the need for Israel to ensure effective deconfliction in Gaza. We want to see Israel take greater care to limit its operations to military targets, avoid harming civilians, in particular children, and destroying homes. Too many civilians have been killed.
We are calling for an immediate pause to get aid in and hostages out, then progress towards a sustainable, permanent ceasefire, without a return to destruction, fighting and loss of life.
The Foreign Secretary reiterated these points during his visit to Israel on 17 April, where he met Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Israel Katz.