Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of whether aid intended for earthquake victims is able to pass into (a) Turkey and (b) Kurdish areas without any bureaucratic obstacles.

We have been working closely with the Turkish authorities to facilitate the rapid delivery of aid to earthquake affected areas. In Syria, we continue to engage with the UN, International and NGO partners to ensure that aid reaches those who are most in need of humanitarian assistance as quickly as possible, including to marginalised communities and to areas which are hard to reach. The UK welcomes the UN-brokered agreement to open additional border crossings into northwest Syria for an initial period of three months. To date the UK has delivered over 330 tonnes of aid to earthquake hit Turkey and Syria.