Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what support the Government plans to provide minority women and girls overseas who are victims of sexual abuse.

Since June 2014 we have provided over £1.3million for projects to support gender equality and combat sexual violence, in a number of conflict-affected countries. This includes funding in the current year to promote the use of the International Protocol on the Documentation and Investigation of Sexual Violence in Conflict and to combat the stigma associated with sexual violence.

Ending violence against all women and girls is a top priority for the UK. In 2015, this Government made a clear and bold manifesto commitment to tackle violence against women and girls, end Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and combat child and early forced marriage, both at home and abroad.

We have increased our resources to tackle violence against women and girls by more than 60% in recent years. This includes Department for International Development's £35 million programme to tackle FGM and their £36 million programme to end Child, Early and Forced Marriage. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is supporting women's rights projects through the Magna Carta Fund for Human Rights and Democracy across at least 28 countries with a total spend of £3,626,037 between 2016 and 2018.