Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how many meetings (a) she and (b) officials of the Department have held with charities to discuss the sexual exploitation of women in the workplace.

Details of all external Ministerial meetings, including those with charities, are available in our transparency data on gov.uk. At official level, we regularly meet with partners and sexual exploitation and abuse is one of a number of issues that we raise.

The International Development Secretary has written to every UK charity that receives UK aid insisting that they set out the steps they are taking to ensure their safeguarding policies are fully in place and confirm they have referred all concerns they have about specific cases and individuals to the relevant authorities by 26 February. We are currently reviewing these returns and shared the first findings at the Safeguarding Summit on 5 March.

We have also established new Safeguarding Unit in DFID to urgently review safeguarding across all parts of the aid sector to ensure everything is being done to protect people from harm and we are hosting a safeguarding summit to bring together UK international development charities, regulatory bodies and independent experts to commit to drive up safeguarding standards and take bold steps to tackle sexual exploitation and abuse within charities and by staff abroad