Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to help protect civil society and trade unions in countries affected by covid-19.

As Parliament rose earlier than planned and the first day for answer of this PQ was after the Easter recess, due to the pace of developments during the COVID-19 crisis, I submitted a response by email on 7 April, with the following response. The Table Office have agreed this approach.

We are working closely with our international counterparts to reduce the health and economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and to set the stage for a strong recovery of sustainable economic growth and prosperity. Our priority is to support the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other multilateral actors to contain Covid-19 and mitigate secondary health and socio-economic impacts. It is essential that all responses to the Covid-19 outbreak must be in compliance with international human rights law. In his statement after the G7 meeting of 25 March, the Foreign Secretary noted the G7 had agreed on the importance of a strongly coordinated international approach to protect the world economy.