Asked by: Tommy Sheppard (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the designation of six Palestinian civil society organisations as terrorist by the Israeli government; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by James Cleverly - Home Secretary
We are aware of the decision by the Israeli authorities and will be seeking additional information to understand the basis for the designations. Human rights and civil society organisations have a vital role to play in the development of thriving, open societies.Asked by: Tommy Sheppard (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what plans the Government has to support the work of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.
Answered by James Cleverly - Home Secretary
The UK is a long-term supporter of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). We recognise UNRWA's unique mandate from the UN General Assembly, to provide protection and core services including health and education to Palestinian refugees across the Middle East. Budgets for 2020 were outlined in our Statistics in International Development report available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statistics-on-international-development-final-uk-aid-spend-2020. Our future spending allocations will be set in the next Spending Review and full budgets for 2021 will be published in due course, including in our regular Statistics on International Development website and in the FCDO Annual Report and Accounts.
Asked by: Tommy Sheppard (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, further to the Answer of 9 September 2021 to Question 41953, if she will provide a breakdown of the year and value of each contract and the nature of the consultancy services procured in each case.
Answered by Amanda Milling - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The financial figures associated with each contract have been temporarily removed from the public domain due to the current situation in Afghanistan, while we review the security risks of this information being made publicly available.
Asked by: Tommy Sheppard (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many payments have been made to Adam Smith International for work in Afghanistan in each year since 2010; what the amount of each of those payments was; and what services were provided in return for those payments.
Answered by Nigel Adams
FCDO's consultancy spend with Adam Smith International (ASI) for work in Afghanistan from 2011 -2017 was £53.9 million.
There have not been any contracts with ASI for Afghanistan since 2017.
Asked by: Tommy Sheppard (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the recommendation of the All Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom of Religion or Belief's report entitled Religious Minorities of Pakistan: Report of a Parliamentary visit, published in September 2019, what representations his Department has made to Pakistan’s provincial governments on the return of nationalised Christian and Ahmadi colleges and schools.
Answered by Nigel Adams
The UK Government continues to engage with representatives of Christian and Ahmadi communities in Pakistan to understand their concerns about, and implications of, the nationalisation of their colleges and schools. During his recent visit to Pakistan, Lord Ahmad hosted a roundtable and discussed this issue, including the recent nationalisation of Edwardes College Peshawar, with interfaith leaders, the Chairperson of the Council of Islamic Ideology, and members of Pakistan's Parliament on 23 June. Lord Ahmad also met with Pakistan Federal Education Minister, Shafqat Mahmood, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Elementary and Secondary Education Minister, Shahram Khan, and Sindh Education and Labour Minister, Saeed Ghani, during the Global Education Summit on 28 July. These discussions focussed on ensuring girls' access to education, supporting continuity of education during the pandemic, and promoting inclusivity and respect for all religions. As part of our wider support to the education sector, the UK Government has facilitated a coalition of civil society actors that is working with the Government of Pakistan to promote inclusion and rights of children from minorities and other marginalised groups.
Asked by: Tommy Sheppard (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to recommendation of the All Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom of Religion or Belief's report entitled Religious Minorities of Pakistan: Report of a Parliamentary visit, published in September 2019, what recent support the Government has provided to Pakistan to encourage teacher training on respect for minorities.
Answered by Nigel Adams
UK-funded education programmes in Pakistan cover professional development for teachers. The UK Government has supported the development and delivery of teacher training modules on equity and inclusion, which have been delivered to over 100,000 teachers. We are now working with the Government of Pakistan to improve the teacher-training curriculum to include modules on peaceful coexistence, tolerance and respect for minorities; and delivering this training so that teachers can teach their students these values.
Asked by: Tommy Sheppard (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of whether non-Muslim pupils at educational institutions in Pakistan are required to receive Islamic religious education.
Answered by Nigel Adams
The UK Government continues to be concerned about the inclusion of Islamic religious content as part of compulsory subjects in Pakistan's educational institutions. We have asked the Pakistan Government to ensure Islamic religious teachings are restricted to relevant subjects and not included in those where they are not directly related to student learning outcomes. We have also facilitated a coalition of civil society actors that is working with the Pakistan Government to promote inclusion in education. Members of this group have supported the government to develop a curriculum for a new subject of "Religious Studies", which examines Pakistan's five major religions, and which minority students may opt to take instead of Islamic studies.
Asked by: Tommy Sheppard (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what fiscal steps he is taking to improve women and girls lives and health in the Global South.
Answered by Wendy Morton
Advancing gender equality and women's and girls' rights are a core part of this Government's mission, including fulfilling every girl's right to 12 years of quality education, empowering women socially, economically, and politically, and ending violence against women and girls. This is also highlighted in the Integrated Review (IR) which was published earlier this year, the joint US-UK Statement following President Biden's visit to the UK and the G7 Leaders Communique.
We know that women and girls are amongst the hardest hit by the indirect impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. That is why we donated an additional £10 million for the United Nations Population Fund's Covid-19 response and an additional £1 million (on top of our existing £21 million contribution), to the UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women for the COVID-19 Crisis Response Window. These funds have supported small grassroots organisations on the frontlines and placed survivors at the heart of our response. The UK is also continuing its work to advance sexual reproductive health and rights, including access to modern family planning methods in the world's poorest countries. Between April 2015 and March 2020, with UK Aid funding we reached an average of 25.3 million women and girls with modern methods of family planning per year.
Asked by: Tommy Sheppard (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what progress has been made on improving the lives and health of women and girls in the Global South.
Answered by Wendy Morton
Advancing gender equality and women's and girls' rights are a core part of this Government's mission, including fulfilling every girl's right to 12 years of quality education, empowering women socially, economically, and politically, and ending violence against women and girls. This is also highlighted in the Integrated Review (IR) which was published earlier this year, the joint US-UK Statement following President Biden's visit to the UK and the G7 Leaders Communiqué. We know that women and girls are amongst the hardest hit by the indirect impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. That is why we donated an additional £10 million for the United Nations Population Fund's Covid-19 response and an additional £1 million to the UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women for the COVID-19 Crisis Response Window. The UK takes action to advance SRHR, including access to modern family planning methods in the world's poorest countries. Between April 2015 and March 2020, the UK reached an average of 25.3 million total women and girls with modern methods of family planning per year.
Asked by: Tommy Sheppard (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what fiscal steps he is taking to increase access to family planning.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The UK continues to play a significant role in increasing access to voluntary family planning globally, as part of our efforts to advance sexual and reproductive health and rights. UK aid is supporting UNFPA, the Global Financing Facility, the International Planned Parenthood Federation, MSI Reproductive Choices and other partners, to advance the availability of modern contraception in the world's poorest countries. In 2021/22 UK aid is also supporting the launch of the new global family planning partnership, FP2030, to accelerate country leadership on family planning.