Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how much money was spent by the Government on (a) protecting and (b) supporting human rights defenders globally in each year since 2009-10.

​The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) protects and supports human rights defenders in a variety of ways, including by funding projects through the Magna Carta Fund for Human Rights and Democracy (MCF) and the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF). Figures for MCF-funded projects specifically focussing on human rights defenders are only available from 2016. In financial year 2016/17, the FCO spent an estimated £609,185 from MCF on projects to protect and/or support human rights defenders. The figure for financial year 2017/18 is likely to be approximately £449,430. These figures do not take into account work funded from the CSSF or projects which supported human rights defenders that fall into different thematic areas such as freedom of expression or freedom of religion or belief. An accurate and comprehensive estimate of the full value of FCO's work to protect and support human rights defenders would need to take into account the full economic cost of non-project activities such as communications, attendance at trials, and diplomatic engagement with overseas governments and state institutions. Data to allow such an estimate to be reached is not held centrally