Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the answer by the Secretary of State for International Development on 30 April (HC Deb, col 62), how they propose to provide support to the local administrations in the extremist controlled Idlib area.

Through the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF) we are helping to meet the needs of Syrian communities in Idlib. The CSSF supports the local administration and citizens’ participation in areas controlled by the moderate opposition through a portfolio of education, livelihoods and governance programmes.

The UK has extensive controls in place to ensure that UK aid reaches those who need it and that it does not benefit extremists groups, including vetting processes to ensure such groups are not part of the Councils with which we work and a variety of sources to monitor ongoing developments in communities. We stop funding to any project or sub-project where we have any concern that it could benefit proscribed groups.