Asked by: Alice Macdonald (Labour (Co-op) - Norwich North)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if she will consider adding Sudan as a focus country within the Women Peace and Security National Action Plan.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK is appalled at the severe impact of the conflict in Sudan on women and girls, including widespread sexual violence.
Through our leadership roles at the UN Security Council and Human Rights Council, we have championed evidence collection and accountability. On 6 October, the UK led efforts to renew the mandate of the UN Fact-Finding Mission (FFM), the only independent mechanism preserving evidence of atrocities, including conflict-related sexual violence. We also fund a specialist Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) investigator within the FFM and are deploying a UK secondee to the International Criminal Court's (ICC) Darfur investigation.
On 1 November, the Foreign Secretary announced an additional £5 million to support critical humanitarian services in Sudan, £2 million of which will be specifically allocated to bolster responses which focus on supporting the survivors of rape and sexual violence. This is in addition to the £120 million in UK funding already allocated for Sudan this year, including support for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence.
We directly support women and girls through our programming, including the Women's Integrated Sexual Health programme which provides sexual and reproductive services to women, girls, persons living with disability and men, with UK aid delivered in camps for IDPs and elsewhere. Through our Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) programme, the UK is providing an additional £4.95 million until March 2026 to support 100,000 women and girls with a range of services to prevent and respond to FGM, child marriage and gender-based violence. This brings the total UK support delivered through this programme to £19.95 million.
Asked by: Baroness Helic (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to deploy experts from the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative to support the documentation of sexual violence and the protection of survivors in Sudan and neighbouring countries.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)
The UK is appalled at the severe impact of the conflict in Sudan on women and girls, including widespread sexual violence.
Through our leadership roles at the UN Security Council and Human Rights Council, we have championed evidence collection and accountability. On 6 October, the UK led efforts to renew the mandate of the UN Fact-Finding Mission (FFM), the only independent mechanism preserving evidence of atrocities, including conflict-related sexual violence. We also fund a specialist Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) investigator within the FFM and are deploying a UK secondee to the International Criminal Court's (ICC) Darfur investigation.
On 1 November, the Foreign Secretary announced an additional £5 million to support critical humanitarian services in Sudan, £2 million of which will be specifically allocated to bolster responses which focus on supporting the survivors of rape and sexual violence. This is in addition to the £120 million in UK funding already allocated for Sudan this year, including support for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence.
We directly support women and girls through our programming, including the Women's Integrated Sexual Health programme which provides sexual and reproductive services to women, girls, persons living with disability and men, with UK aid delivered in camps for IDPs and elsewhere. Through our Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) programme, the UK is providing an additional £4.95 million until March 2026 to support 100,000 women and girls with a range of services to prevent and respond to FGM, child marriage and gender-based violence. This brings the total UK support delivered through this programme to £19.95 million.
Asked by: Baroness Helic (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much funding has been (1) paid, and (2) pledged, to local women's organisations providing medical and psychosocial support to survivors of sexual violence in Sudan.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)
The UK is appalled at the severe impact of the conflict in Sudan on women and girls, including widespread sexual violence.
Through our leadership roles at the UN Security Council and Human Rights Council, we have championed evidence collection and accountability. On 6 October, the UK led efforts to renew the mandate of the UN Fact-Finding Mission (FFM), the only independent mechanism preserving evidence of atrocities, including conflict-related sexual violence. We also fund a specialist Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) investigator within the FFM and are deploying a UK secondee to the International Criminal Court's (ICC) Darfur investigation.
On 1 November, the Foreign Secretary announced an additional £5 million to support critical humanitarian services in Sudan, £2 million of which will be specifically allocated to bolster responses which focus on supporting the survivors of rape and sexual violence. This is in addition to the £120 million in UK funding already allocated for Sudan this year, including support for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence.
We directly support women and girls through our programming, including the Women's Integrated Sexual Health programme which provides sexual and reproductive services to women, girls, persons living with disability and men, with UK aid delivered in camps for IDPs and elsewhere. Through our Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) programme, the UK is providing an additional £4.95 million until March 2026 to support 100,000 women and girls with a range of services to prevent and respond to FGM, child marriage and gender-based violence. This brings the total UK support delivered through this programme to £19.95 million.
Asked by: Baroness Helic (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have received verified evidence from the United Nations or other credible sources confirming the widespread use of sexual violence as a weapon of war in Sudan; and what action they are taking to support the investigation and documentation of such crimes.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)
The UK is appalled at the severe impact of the conflict in Sudan on women and girls, including widespread sexual violence.
Through our leadership roles at the UN Security Council and Human Rights Council, we have championed evidence collection and accountability. On 6 October, the UK led efforts to renew the mandate of the UN Fact-Finding Mission (FFM), the only independent mechanism preserving evidence of atrocities, including conflict-related sexual violence. We also fund a specialist Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) investigator within the FFM and are deploying a UK secondee to the International Criminal Court's (ICC) Darfur investigation.
On 1 November, the Foreign Secretary announced an additional £5 million to support critical humanitarian services in Sudan, £2 million of which will be specifically allocated to bolster responses which focus on supporting the survivors of rape and sexual violence. This is in addition to the £120 million in UK funding already allocated for Sudan this year, including support for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence.
We directly support women and girls through our programming, including the Women's Integrated Sexual Health programme which provides sexual and reproductive services to women, girls, persons living with disability and men, with UK aid delivered in camps for IDPs and elsewhere. Through our Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) programme, the UK is providing an additional £4.95 million until March 2026 to support 100,000 women and girls with a range of services to prevent and respond to FGM, child marriage and gender-based violence. This brings the total UK support delivered through this programme to £19.95 million.
Asked by: Baroness Helic (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure the safety of women and girls in camps for internally displaced people in Darfur and along Sudan's borders, following reports of widespread sexual assaults and forced marriages.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)
The UK is appalled at the severe impact of the conflict in Sudan on women and girls, including widespread sexual violence.
Through our leadership roles at the UN Security Council and Human Rights Council, we have championed evidence collection and accountability. On 6 October, the UK led efforts to renew the mandate of the UN Fact-Finding Mission (FFM), the only independent mechanism preserving evidence of atrocities, including conflict-related sexual violence. We also fund a specialist Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) investigator within the FFM and are deploying a UK secondee to the International Criminal Court's (ICC) Darfur investigation.
On 1 November, the Foreign Secretary announced an additional £5 million to support critical humanitarian services in Sudan, £2 million of which will be specifically allocated to bolster responses which focus on supporting the survivors of rape and sexual violence. This is in addition to the £120 million in UK funding already allocated for Sudan this year, including support for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence.
We directly support women and girls through our programming, including the Women's Integrated Sexual Health programme which provides sexual and reproductive services to women, girls, persons living with disability and men, with UK aid delivered in camps for IDPs and elsewhere. Through our Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) programme, the UK is providing an additional £4.95 million until March 2026 to support 100,000 women and girls with a range of services to prevent and respond to FGM, child marriage and gender-based violence. This brings the total UK support delivered through this programme to £19.95 million.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to support the (a) development and (b) expansion of Women’s Health Hubs; and what steps he is taking to work with Integrated Care Boards to encourage this.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are supporting integrated care boards (ICBs) to continue improving their delivery of women’s health hubs, in line with their responsibility to commission services that meet the needs of their local populations.
We have heard from ICBs on the positive impacts that women’s health hubs have on both women's access to care in the community and their experience. The Government is committed to encouraging ICBs to further expand the coverage of women’s health hubs and to support ICBs to use the learning from the women’s health hub pilots to improve local delivery of services to women and girls. NHS England have therefore asked ICBs to include them in their plans for 2025/26.
As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, we are committed to moving towards a neighbourhood health service, with more care delivered in local communities, to identify and address problems earlier and closer to home. Women’s health hubs are an example of this approach and can play a key role in delivering the Government’s manifesto commitments on tackling long NHS waiting lists, as well as shifting care into the community.
The 2022 Women’s Health Strategy identified many important issues which remain valid, so we now need to align the strategy with the 10-Year Health Plan and identify areas where we need to go further.
We know that women deserve better, which is why we are updating the Women’s Health Strategy, to assess the progress that has been made so far and to continue progressing delivery.
Asked by: Baroness Hussein-Ece (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure adequate funding for women's sexual and reproductive health and rights in all UK-sponsored humanitarian responses.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)
I refer the Noble Baroness to the answer provided on 23 January 2025 to Question HL3786.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists's report entitled A work in progress: evaluating the women’s health strategy, published in July 2025, whether he plans to update his Department's Women's health strategy for England to align it with the 10 Year Health Plan.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 2022 Women's Health Strategy identified many important issues which remain valid, and we have already made excellent progress turning the commitments in the strategy into tangible action. This includes delivering 5.2 million extra appointments, tackling gynaecology waiting lists using the private sector, and we will shortly make emergency hormonal contraception free in pharmacies. We now need to update the Women’s Health Strategy to align with the 10-Year Health Plan and identify areas where we need to go further.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of reductions in the budgets for Integrated Care Boards on (a) specialist services for women and (b) Women’s health hubs.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Following the Prime Minister’s announcement of the abolition of NHS England, we are clear on the need for a smaller centre, as well as scaling back integrated care board (ICB) running costs and National Health Service provider corporate cost reductions to reduce waste and bureaucracy.
The Spending Review 2025 settlement provides an additional £29 billion of annual day-to-day spending in real terms by 2028/29 compared to 2023/24. We are now carefully reviewing how the settlement is prioritised.
We are supporting ICBs to continue improving their delivery of women’s health hubs, in line with their responsibility to commission services that meet the needs of women in their local populations.
We have heard from ICBs on the positive impacts that women’s health hubs have had on both women's access to care in the community and their experience. The Government is committed to encouraging ICBs to further expand the coverage of women’s health hubs and to support ICBs to use the learning from the women’s health hub pilots to improve local delivery of services to women and girls.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to increase the number of funded women's health nursing training posts.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) set the standards for nursing education in the United Kingdom. These standards prepare nurses to deliver care in a variety of roles and settings. There is no NMC-mandated requirement for post registration education for nurses working in women's health. It is the responsibility of individual employers to invest in the future of their workforce and to ensure specialist nurses have the appropriate ongoing training and continuing professional development to provide safe and effective care.