Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to Answer of 23 January 2022 to Question 126580 on Developing Countries: Malaria and Tuberculosis, what proportion of the UK funding commitment to the Gavi Matching Fund for 2021-25 has been delivered.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell
The UK has committed up to £25 million to Gavi's current Matching fund 2021-2025. Of this £25 million we have so far contributed £5 million (20%) towards the fund. To date £1 million of the UK/Gavi Matching Fund has been matched. There are currently further UK/Gavi Matching Fund opportunities being explored for this year.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much funding the Government has contributed to the GAVI Matching Fund to tackle TB and Malaria since the fund's launch in 2013; and what information his Department holds on the dates that programme was operating.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell
The UK pledged £50 million to the Gavi Matching Fund 2011-2015. £38 million of this commitment was utilised matching private contributions £1 for £1 in support of Gavi's core mission to immunise children against vaccine-preventable diseases. The UK have also committed up to £25 million to Gavi's current Matching Fund, which makes up part of our £1.65 billion commitment to Gavi between 2021 - 2025. The UK's main investments in malaria and tuberculosis are through the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (the 'Global Fund'). UK leadership helped establish the Global Fund in 2002. Our 2019 commitment included a £200 million 'Malaria Match Fund' which has been delivered in full.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department is taking steps to ensure (a) family planning and (b) sexual and reproductive health and rights are funding priorities for in-country programmes.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell
The UK is proud to defend and promote universal and comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and will continue working with other countries to protect gender equality in international agreements. Most recently, the UK co-led a cross-regional joint statement on SRHR, delivered at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Third Committee for Human Rights, signed by 71 countries.
At the 2017 Family Planning Summit, the UK publicly committed to spend an average of £225 million on family planning each year to 2022. The UK has exceeded this commitment, spending an average of approximately £246 million every year between April 2017 and March 2022. New UK funding to the Global Family Planning Partnership 'FP2030' prioritises in-country programmes in regions including North, West, and Central Africa; East and Southern Africa; Asia and the Pacific; and Latin America and the Caribbean.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether any Ministers from his Department plan to attend the COP 15 UN Biodiversity Conference.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell
Lord Goldsmith, Minister for Energy, Climate Change and Environment, is planning on attending the UN Convention on Biological Diversity COP15 conference on behalf of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what estimate his Department has made of the number of children absent from school due to emergencies in each of the last twelve months.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell
Recent estimates show 222 million crisis-affected children are currently not getting the education they need, including almost 80 million children who are not learning at all. Education in times of crisis can be life-saving for children by giving a sense of normality and the protection they need. That is why the UK is proud to be a founding member and a leading donor to both Education Cannot Wait - the global fund for education in emergencies - and the Global Partnership for Education, which helps to build and strengthen education systems in many fragile and conflict-affected states. The UK also supports the Girls' Education Challenge, the largest global fund for girls' education which is supporting 1.5 million of the hardest to reach girls to access education across 17 countries.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of developing a global teacher strategy that provides for a commitment to inclusive and gender transformative teaching around the world.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell
We need global collaboration to ensure all children and young people globally, can learn and reach their potential. The recent global Commitment to Action on Foundational Learning, endorsed by the FCDO, includes support to teachers, and the most marginalised children, including girls. Teaching quality is the most important factor affecting learning in schools. The UK's 2018 Education Policy, and 2021 Girls' Education Action Plan, and the G7 Global Education Objectives, demonstrate the commitment to invest in good teaching and reach marginalised girls. Our programmes work with partners and governments, using the best available evidence, to support quality teaching globally.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of the Education Cannot Wait's case for investment in the UN’s global fund for education in emergencies and its 2023-26 Strategic Plan; and if he will make statement.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell
The UK is proud to be a co-founding member and leading donor to Education Cannot Wait (ECW). Given the UK Government's response to the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, wider Official Development Assistance (ODA) pressures, including the ODA-eligible expenditure incurred through the Afghan resettlement programme and the UK's support to people fleeing Ukraine, the FCDO and other ODA spending departments will need to revisit aid budgets to ensure all eligible spending is managed within 0.5% of Gross National Income this calendar year.
The Government remains committed to transparency and will provide an update to Parliament on spending plans in due course.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what Official Development Assistance funding mechanisms his Department uses to disburse sexual and reproductive health and rights aid.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Details of all UK Government Official Development Assistance funding mechanisms including channel of delivery, bilateral multilateral breakdown, type of aid, and type of finance is listed by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Development Assistance Committe (DAC) sector code in the "Statistics on International Development (SID): final UK aid spend 2020 - Data underlying the SID publication" annex table here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statistics-on-international-development-final-uk-aid-spend-2020
Please refer to the "Donor Delivering for Sexual Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR)" report SRHR spend methodology for the most relevant OECD DAC sector code here: https://donorsdelivering.report/
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of expelling Iranian diplomats in the UK in response to the Iranian Government's reaction to ongoing protests in Iran.
Answered by Gillian Keegan
The UK maintains close to 300 sanctions designations against Iran in relation to human rights, UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), nuclear proliferation and terrorism. A full list is available online on the UK Sanctions List. Recently, on 10 October, the UK announced sanctions on seven senior security and political figures responsible for human rights violations in Iran, as well as the so-called Morality Police. For decades, they used the threat of detention and violence to control what Iranian women wear and how they behave in public. It is longstanding practice not to speculate on future sanctions designations, as to do so could reduce their impact, nor would we comment on potential expulsions. The UK's position is clear: through our words and actions, we will hold Iran to account.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will list any (a) people and (b) organisations in Iran that the Government will sanction in response to the Iranian Government's reaction to ongoing protests in that country.
Answered by Gillian Keegan
The UK maintains close to 300 sanctions designations against Iran in relation to human rights, UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), nuclear proliferation and terrorism. A full list is available online on the UK Sanctions List. Recently, on 10 October, the UK announced sanctions on seven senior security and political figures responsible for human rights violations in Iran, as well as the so-called Morality Police. For decades, they used the threat of detention and violence to control what Iranian women wear and how they behave in public. It is longstanding practice not to speculate on future sanctions designations, as to do so could reduce their impact, nor would we comment on potential expulsions. The UK's position is clear: through our words and actions, we will hold Iran to account.