Asked by: Tony Lloyd (Labour - Rochdale)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to her oral contribution of 28 February 2022, Official Report, column 724, in response to the question from the hon. Member for Rochdale, whether she has determined whether a breach of the sanctions regime took place in respect of a sanctioned jet twice landing at Luton Airport in January; and what steps she plans to take to determine how such a breach occurred in the event that it did.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The UK and our partners continue to put pressure on the Lukashenko regime and those who support it, including through tough sanctions. On 1 March we announced a first tranche of sanctions against Belarusian individuals and organisations in response to the role the country is playing in Russia's invasion of Ukraine, including facilitating the invasion from within its borders. These designations are in addition to the wide-ranging measures we have already imposed on Belarus under our Belarus sanctions regime, which include sanctions on President Lukashenko and 117 other individuals and entities as well as trade, financial and aviation sanctions. The UK's Belarus sanctions prohibit the direct or indirect provision of technical assistance to or for the benefit of designated persons, where that assistance relates to any aircraft. HM Revenue and Customs are responsible for enforcing trade sanctions measures on the provision of technical assistance.
Asked by: Tony Lloyd (Labour - Rochdale)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether her Department has made an assessment of the impact of the reduction in the Official Development Assistance budget on the humanitarian response in Syria.
Answered by Amanda Milling
The UK works closely with our humanitarian partners, such as the UN, International and Syrian NGOs to understand the impact of UK aid spending and will continue to keep this under review. Despite difficult funding decisions due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK remains a leading humanitarian donor to Syria. To date, we have committed over £3.7 billion in response to the regional Syrian crisis, our largest ever response to a single humanitarian crisis. Our focus remains on protecting and prioritising the most vulnerable and ensuring our aid is delivered in the most effective and efficient way. Our aid to Syria this financial year has supported the distribution of 3,125 food rations with each individual's ration covering their needs for a month. In addition, our support ensured that 12,556 people benefitted from psychosocial support, 170,399 pupils were provided with access to formal education and 20,633 people benefited from sexual and gender-based violence services.
Asked by: Tony Lloyd (Labour - Rochdale)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps she is taking to work with (a) other donors and (b) the UNHCR to strengthen support for (i) mechanisms to monitor the protection situation in Syria and (ii) the conditions for safe, voluntary and dignified returns in that country.
Answered by Amanda Milling
The UK, along with the likeminded international community, continue to call upon all parties to the conflict in Syria to uphold International Humanitarian Law and protect civilians. The UK supports humanitarian, accountability and legal organisations to monitor, document, report, gather evidence on and investigate human rights and international humanitarian law violations.
Whilst the UK Government hopes that Syrian refugees will, ultimately, be able to return home, we agree with the UN judgement that conditions in Syria do not currently allow this. We are engaged with UNHCR on its framework review which will address these issues more closely. However, only a political solution under UN Security Council Resolution 2254 can ensure conditions safe for returns. UN Envoy Geir Pedersen has our full support in this effort.