Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how he will ensure that funding allocated to NGOs is not used to enforce the US government’s anti-abortion policies under the expanded Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance rule.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
The UK government will continue to lead the world in our long-term support for comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), and to help women and girls get the information and services they need to give them control over their own lives and bodies. This is essential to achieving the Global Goals.
Following the reintroduction and expansion of the Mexico City Policy in January 2017, we have kept in close contact with partners including UK NGOs to ensure the policy does not compromise UK-supported evidence-based comprehensive SRHR programming.
The full implications of the further expansion of the Mexico City Policy in May 2019 are still emerging and we are closely monitoring developments. DFID is considering the implications, including with our partners, civil society and other donors.
The UK will continue to defend SRHR through our programmes and our voice on the world stage.
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 is taking to ensure that medical workers in Gaza can perform their humanitarian functions without risk of attack.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
We are deeply concerned by the report of attacks on health workers in Gaza. The UK is clear that no health workers or aid workers should be at risk of violence, and that they must have the protection they need from the responsible authorities to allow them to do their jobs in safety. While we recognise Israel’s right to security, we have repeatedly made clear to Israel our longstanding concerns about the way Israel Defence Forces (IDF) police protests and the border areas in Gaza, including our concerns about the use of live ammunition and excessive force by the IDF. We regularly raise with the Government of Israel the urgent need to ease all access and movement restrictions on Gaza, including for health workers.
The UK continues to strongly support the delivery of humanitarian assistance in Gaza. In 2019, the UK is supporting urgent medical needs through the International Committee for the Red Cross and the World Health Organisation. We are also providing support to the UN Access Coordination Unit, which works to facilitate humanitarian access for UN and NGO workers into Gaza.
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 is taking to ensure that people responsible for attacks on humanitarian workers are held to account.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
The primary responsibility for prosecuting those who attack humanitarian workers in any context lies with the state authorities. In a conflict context, where the state authorities are unable or unwilling to do this, international accountability mechanisms may be invoked, as appropriate. The UK supports international mechanisms such as the International Criminal Court or ad hoc tribunals acting within their mandates when grave violations of international humanitarian law are suspected, and the state is genuinely unable or unwilling to investigate or prosecute.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how many staff in her Department have been seconded to support projects related to the UK leaving the EU (a) within her Department and (b) to other Departments.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
As at 28 February, DFID has deployed 39 employees on short term loan to other government departments and fewer than 10 staff internally to support projects related to the UK leaving the EU.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much her Department spent on programmes tackling tuberculosis in (a) 2015-16, (b) 2016-17 and (c) 2017-18.
Answered by Alistair Burt
DFID invests in the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and malaria as the principal mechanism to combat TB. The UK is currently the second largest investor in the Global Fund, providing £1.2 billion in the 5th replenishment (2017 – 2019); and in the 4th replenishment period (2012-16) we invested £800 million.
We have some bilateral programmes to combat TB but these are decreasing as our investment in the Global Fund increases. Bilateral spending on TB, which we publish by calendar year, is: £10,017,171 for 2015; £2,626,718 for 2016; and £2,455,101 for 2017.
In addition we fund research on TB, including to develop more effective diagnostics and treatment, programmes to support countries to strengthen their health systems to better address all causes of ill health, including TB, and significant other investments into other health multilaterals such as the WHO, which provides technical leadership on tackling TB and strengthening health systems, and Unitaid which is supporting the introduction of new drugs for drug-resistant for TB, the first in nearly 50 years, and the development of paediatric TB medicines for children in some of the world’s poorest countries.
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-2017
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much funding her Department has provided for the research and development of (a) diagnostics, (b) drugs, (c) vaccines and (d) applied health systems research for Tuberculosis in each of the last five years.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
The UK Government is a global leader in investment in Research and Development for TB, second only to the US.
The table shows the funding provided by the Department for International Development for research for Tuberculosis (TB) in each of the last five years.
| Spend on TB Research in £m | ||||
| 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 |
a) diagnostics | 0.98 | 0.71 | 0.70 | 1.40 | 2.45 |
b) drugs | 6.00 | 8.00 | 7.00 | 4.00 | 9.00 |
c) vaccines | 3.30 | 1.90 | 1.60 | 1.36 | 1.59 |
d) applied health research | 2.62 | 3.04 | 4.56 | 2.90 | 2.76 |
Total | 12.90 | 13.65 | 13.86 | 9.66 | 15.80 |
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 her Department is taking to help improve the provision of (a) reproductive health and (b) gender-based violence prevention services in Yemen.
Answered by Alistair Burt
As part of its £96.5 million of funding to UNICEF in Yemen over the coming three years, the UK will support 800,000 people with reproductive health services. This includes support for over 300,000 people with family planning advice, 292,000 women with antenatal check-ups and 117,000 women during childbirth.
The UK is also supporting measures to prevent violence against women and girls in Yemen as part of its £13 million of funding this financial year (2018/2019) for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and International Office for Migration.
These measures include medical support, legal services and psychosocial counselling to over 1,700 female sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) survivors in Yemen, as well as the establishment of twelve gender specific community-based committees to work on SGBV prevention.
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 steps her Department has taking to help prevent violence against women and girls in Yemen.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The UK is supporting measures to prevent violence against women and girls in Yemen as part of its £13 million of funding this financial year to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and International Office for Migration (IOM).
These measures have included medical support, legal services and psychosocial counselling to over 1,700 female sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) survivors in Yemen, as well as the establishment of twelve gender specific community-based committees to work on SGBV prevention.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what proportion of her Department’s spending is currently focused on gender-based violence prevention.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
The UK is a world leader in championing prevention of Violence Against Women and Girls through research, programmes and partnerships. Our £25million What Works to Prevent Violence programme is the largest global investment in research into prevention of violence against women and girls. I am committed to maintaining the UK’s global leadership in this area.
Work to prevent violence against women and girls in DFID consists of standalone prevention programming, integrated violence prevention and response programmes, a range of interventions incorporated into wider education, women’s economic empowerment and social protection programmes and work through multilateral agencies. This complexity means that we do not specifically track all this spend as gender-based violence prevention.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will take steps to ensure her Department's implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 5 and Goal 8 includes (a) targets and (b) indicators that can be adapted in the event of crises.
Answered by Alistair Burt
A key strategic objective of the UK aid strategy is to strengthen resilience and response to crises. This is, in our view, critical to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in the most vulnerable countries. DFID’s crises response is needs-based, and therefore particularly sensitive to women and girls, as one of the groups most impacted in crises. DFID also continuously adapts its programmes to prepare for, and build resilience to, crises. This includes a focus on supporting jobs and livelihoods for the most vulnerable groups including women and girls. In Nepal, we support disaster risk reduction efforts that provide work opportunities to the most vulnerable and ensure that women can access these through targeted recruitment campaigns. The DFID-funded Centre for Global Disaster Protection also works with developing countries to improve their financial resilience to disasters and help them safeguard economic development for the most vulnerable, including women and girls.