Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to establish temporary learning centres and to develop earthquake-resilient school structures in Nepal.

Over the past few years, the UK has played a leading role in improving the construction standards of schools in Nepal so that they are more resilient to earthquakes. We have retro-fitted or reconstructed around 200 school buildings and renovated a further 35. This was part of larger programmes and plans, with FCO, MOD and other donors, to help the Government of Nepal and local communities to prepare for an earthquake.

The UK is providing more than £33million to the earthquake response in Nepal, making us the largest donor to the relief operation.

There will be an international conference in Kathmandu on 25 June at which the Government of Nepal will present its plans for post-earthquake reconstruction. This conference will help the UK and other donors to plan and coordinate assistance programmes over the medium to longer term. Ensuring that local communities are less vulnerable to earthquakes is a huge, long-term challenge but the recent earthquake has demonstrated that it will be an important part of our future work.