Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many applications they received for funding under the Human Rights and Democracy Programme in 2013 for work associated with freedom of religion or belief.

In the 2013-14 financial year the Human Rights and Democracy Programme (HRDP) received 218 proposals for funding. Seventeen of these proposals were for work associated with Freedom of Religion and Belief (FORB), representing 7.8% of proposals received. Six projects were ultimately funded, to the value of £214,029. This represents 3.3% of the total resource available.

The programme is keen to see more good quality project bids on this theme in future bidding rounds, and have actively encouraged more quality bids for the 2014-15 financial year.