Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on UK support for the proposed ILO convention on ending violence and harassment in the workplace.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The Secretary of State has corresponded with the Minister of State for Employment on the proposed Convention on Ending Violence and Harassment in the World of Work. They have agreed that officials and legal advisers at the Government Equalities Office and the Department for International Development will work in close partnership with the Department for Work and Pensions to help deliver a successful outcome for the UK on this important issue.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what estimate she has made of the funding allocated by her Department to tackle workplace violence and harassment in developing countries; and which programmes that funding covers.
Answered by Alistair Burt
DFID’s £30.3M Responsible Accountable Transparent Enterprise Programme (RATE) is focussed on promoting job quality standards in developing countries, including ending workplace violence and harassment. All of the organisations funded by this programme, including the Ethical Trading Initiative, ShareAction, Shift and World Benchmarking Alliance are active on this agenda.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what support her Department provides to developing countries that want to move towards clean coal technologies to meet their obligations under the Paris climate agreement.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
DFID helps developing countries establish a secure and sustainable energy supply, supporting their economic growth and poverty reduction. DFID is not providing any bilateral assistance for coal-fired power. The Government supports multilateral organisations such as the World Bank to provide assistance for unabated coal-fired power projects overseas only in exceptional circumstances in the poorest countries where there is no feasible alternative. We do however support proposals for financing the additional costs of facilities fully deploying carbon capture and storage technologies.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent assessment her Department has made of the effect of its investment in the Robert Carr Civil Society Networks Fund on the UK’s contribution to the Global Fund.
Answered by Alistair Burt
DFID assesses the Robert Carr Civil Society Networks Fund annually, as we do for all our programmes, and the reviews are available on the DFID Development Tracker at https://devtracker.dfid.gov.uk/.
In partnership with the Robert Carr Civil Society Networks Fund, the Global Fund to fight AIDS TB and Malaria has funded eight global and regional networks of sex workers, transgender people, people who use drugs, men who have sex with men, young people and people living with HIV, to mobilize their respective constituencies at the country level, helping them to address harmful policies, challenge human rights abuses and shape HIV services.
As of January 2016, around US$5 million had been committed over two years to fund activities in over 50 countries and every region of the Global Fund portfolio through this initiative.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what funding her Department provided for research and development for new drugs, diagnostics and vaccines for tuberculosis in the financial years (a) 2014-2015, (b) 2015-2016 and (c) 2016-2017.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The UK Aid Strategy highlights the importance of combatting the world’s most serious diseases, including tuberculosis (TB). DFID provided (a) £10.6m in 2014/15 (b) £9.3m in 2015/16 and (c) £7m in 2016/17 for the development of drugs, diagnostics and vaccines to combat TB.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what funding her Department provided for bilateral programmes on tuberculosis in the financial years (a) 2014-15, (b) 2015-16 and (c) 2016-17.
Answered by Alistair Burt
DFID supports TB control through both bilateral and multilateral channels. The Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and malaria is the principal mechanism the UK uses to finance our contribution to combat TB. We have pledged up to £1.1 billion for 2017-2019 to this Fund. We also support countries to strengthen their health systems so as to better address all causes of ill health including TB. In addition we support research on TB including to develop more effective diagnostics and treatment.
Our purely bilateral spending on TB, which we publish by calendar year, is: £7,938,747 for 2013; £16,312,293 for 2014; and £10,017,171 for 2015. Data beyond 2015 has not yet been published.
Data on UK aid expenditure is published each year and can be accessed from the link below
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statistics-on-international-development-2016
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what funds her Department has committed to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria programme in the financial years (a) 2014-15, (b) 2015-16 and (c) 2016-17.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The table (below) shows DFID’s financial contributions to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria over the timeframe specified.
Financial Year | £ millions |
2014/15 | 285 |
2015/16 | 100 |
2016/17 | 153 |
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps the Government has taken to help ensure that access to mental health services is prioritised as a basic human right in all Commonwealth countries.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The UK is committed to supporting work to improve global mental health in International Development through DFID’s Disability Framework, the Global Goals and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
DFID supports work to ensure access to mental health services in Commonwealth countries, such as in Ghana where we are helping to establish a Mental Health Authority, and providing mental health training to healthcare workers.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to the Answer of 31 March 2017 to Question 69479, what assessment she has made of the cost per megawatt of power generating capacity installed of the investment in Adhunik Power and Natural Resources Ltd power project in Jharkhand compared with other CDC investments in (a) solar PV and (b) wind.
Answered by Rory Stewart
Assessment of Adhunik Power and Natural Resources power project in Jharkland shows it has a lower cost per megawatt of power generating capacity compared to output of the average solar PV and wind projects in India.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to the Answer of 31 March 2017 to Question 69479, how much of CDC's contribution to the India Infrastructure Fund was directed to the 540MW Adhunik Power and Natural Resources Ltd power project in Jharkhand.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The investment in Adhunik Power represents less than 10 per cent of the total value of CDC’s commitment to the fund.