Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, pursuant to the Answer of 5 May to Question 39526 on Equality Act 2010, what criteria her Department used to decide on the timeframe for the commencement of the provisions of the Equalities Act 2010.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
My Department and others involved are working to quantify the additional costs that a commencement of the remainder of Section 36 of the Equality Act 2010 may require local authorities to meet. Agreement on this figure, and whether and how best such costs can be met, will be a key factor in determining the timescale for commencement.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what discussions his Department has had with the Angolan Government on the recent droughts in that country.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Southern Africa is facing an urgent humanitarian crisis due to drought and other climate-related and economic factors. In southern Angola over 500,000 people are experiencing crisis-level food insecurity. The UK is pushing to put this crisis on the international agenda. On a recent visit to the country, I met with Angola’s Minister for Environment and discussed the drought and more broadly the humanitarian situation facing the wider region.
DFID is supporting the regional response through our contributions to multilaterals, notably the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF). The CERF has so far allocated just over £4.8 million to the response in Angola. Through Regional Vulnerability Analysis and Assessment (RVAA) programme, led by the Southern Africa Development Community, the UK is supporting assessments to inform humanitarian and resilience responses, including in Angola.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps his Department is taking to support people affected by recent droughts in Angola.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Southern Africa is facing an urgent humanitarian crisis due to drought and other climate-related and economic factors. In southern Angola over 500,000 people are experiencing crisis-level food insecurity.
The UK is pushing to put this crisis on the international agenda. DFID is supporting the regional response through our contributions to multilaterals, notably the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF). The UK is the largest overall contributor to the CERF since its inception. The CERF has so far allocated approximately £4.8 million to the response in Angola.
Through Regional Vulnerability Analysis and Assessment (RVAA) programme, led by the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), the UK is supporting assessments to inform humanitarian and resilience responses, including in Angola.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps his Department is taking to support people affected by recent droughts in Angola.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
DFID is concerned about the effects of drought and food insecurity on people across Southern Africa and in Angola. Over one million Angolans are affected. Angola is a lower middle-income country, in sub-Saharan Africa it has the third largest economy and is the second largest oil producer. DFID does not have a bilateral programme in Angola, but we do support the people of Angola through centrally managed programmes and contributions to multilateral agencies. For example, in 2018 the UK provided over £300 million in core humanitarian funding to United Nations specialised agencies, the Red Cross movement and NGOs. As a result, the UK’s contribution is approximately 20 percent of the UN Central Emergency Response Fund that has been activated this year in Angola.
The UK is fully committed to tackling climate change and is playing a leading role in driving change around the world. Our regional programmes have supported the identification and planning of water infrastructure and livelihoods programmes to reduce vulnerability to drought including the preliminary design of water supply and sanitation projects that would build water security for more than 20,000 rural people in the Angolan Calai District.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to improve the effectiveness of the UN Verification and Inspection Mechanism for Yemen.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The UK is providing £1.3 million to help the UN’s Verification and Inspection Mechanism (UNVIM) facilitate commercial imports of food and fuel through the Red Sea ports of Hodeidah and Saleef by giving the Saudi-led Coalition confidence that weapons are not coming into Yemen on commercial ships.
Alongside this financial support, we have also deployed UK experts to support the inspections of ships in Djibouti, increasing the proportion of physical inspections ten-fold.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent steps her Department has taken to help ensure humanitarian and commercial access to all sea and air ports in Yemen.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The UK has continuously led the call for unhindered humanitarian and commercial access throughout Yemen, including through the UK-coordinated Security Council Statement of 15 March, the Secretary of State’s visit to Riyadh in December and lobbying from the Prime Minister. The UK is also providing expertise and funding to the UN Verification and Inspection Mechanism (UNVIM) to facilitate import flows into northern Yemen. We are lobbying other donors to support UNVIM to facilitate imports of vital goods into the country.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what guidance her Department provides to architects and contractors on the construction of health facilities which her Department funds or supports.
Answered by Alistair Burt
Where health facilities are constructed with DFID support, we expect implementing partners to work with architects and the Ministry of Health to ensure that basic quality standards set by local regulatory authorities are met. For example, in our Access to Health Care programme in the Democratic Republic of Congo, our implementing partners developed standard designs with the Ministry of Health and with the technical input of architects. This programme also systematically provides WASH infrastructure at health facilities, including toilets, water cisterns, and incinerators. DFID supports adherence to standards through technical advice and programme implementation, and through investments to strengthen health systems that will increase national and local capacity to improve and monitor the quality of health facilities.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent assessment she has made of the humanitarian needs of the refugees in the Berm no-man's land between Syria and Jordan; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Alistair Burt
A comprehensive needs assessment has not been conducted at the Berm recently as security constraints have restricted access. However, our partners tell us that current priorities are to improve security and access to food and medical care. We welcome the progress made to enable the UN to restart deliveries of essential supplies. However, we remain concerned by delays to recent aid distributions and the low number of attendees at the UN health clinic.
We will not be making a further statement at this time.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that food and medical supplies are reaching internally displaced persons in Syria; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The UK has supported the UN and international NGOs since the start of the conflict to deliver food, medical and other supplies to those in need, including internally displaced people. The UK has provided 19.7 million food rations, 6.7 million health consultations, and over 2 million vaccines to people in need across Syria. The UK continues to use its position in the UN Security Council and the International Syria Support Group to press the Assad regime and its backers to allow aid to reach those who need it, while maintaining the pressure for a political settlement to bring the suffering of the Syrian people to an end.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what support her Department has provided to the UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women in each year since 2010.
Answered by Lord Wharton of Yarm
The UK has supported the Fund since 2014 providing £2 million in 2014, £2.25 million in 2015 and £3.75 million in 2016. This support helps to fund local organisations across the world to tackle violence against women, improve access to services such as legal assistance and healthcare, and strengthen laws that protect women and girls.