Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent assessment her Department has made of the effect of the continued military offensive on Hodeidah port on the delivery of humanitarian aid in Yemen; and what steps her Department is taking to ensure humanitarian and commercial imports are delivered into and throughout Yemen.

An operational pause in fighting around Hodeidah continues to hold while Stockholm talks take place. The UK government continues to raise concerns with the Saudi led-Coalition about the potential impact of any assault on the port and city and is in regular contact with the Coalition about the need to ensure that any further military operations do not disrupt commercial and humanitarian flows both through the port and onwards across the country.

As we have consistently made clear, the Houthis must also facilitate access throughout areas they control (which is where most of the population in humanitarian need live).

To date, Red Sea ports remain operational and continue to import most of the food and fuel on which Yemenis rely. The UK is providing £1.3 million to the UN Verification and Inspection Mechanism to increase physical inspections of commercial ships giving the Coalition confidence that weapons which threaten Saudi national security are not coming in to Houthi-controlled areas.