Asked by: Baroness Helic (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the recent reports indicating that Iran has exported Shahed drones and drone technology to Serbia; and of the impact of this on peace and stability in the Western Balkans.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We have seen no evidence that Iran has exported Shahed drones and drone technology to Serbia. We are counselling Serbia to approach its defence procurement with care, as it sensibly seeks to diversify and modernise its defence capabilities. When the Foreign Secretary met President Vucic in Munich in February, he underlined the importance of Serbia supporting efforts to build and support regional stability.
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, whether he has had recent discussions with the UNHCR on children in Gaza who have been orphaned as a result of the Israel-Hamas war in the last six months.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
UN experts assess that 17,000 Palestinian children are believed to have been orphaned since October 2023. UNHCR has no mandate to act in the Occupied Palestinian Territories but the UK is supporting a number of agencies who are targeting funding to respond to the needs of these children. The UK's funding to the Red Cross Movement, and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Pooled Fund has supported their work to identify unaccompanied minors, provide care options, and in some cases reunited children with family members.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, what recent assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of the humanitarian situation in Western Sahara.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, what discussions (a) he, (b) his Ministers and (c) officials from his Department have had with their counterparts in Israel on the (i) airstrike at Al Mawasi on 18 January 2024, (ii) killings of World Central Kitchen workers in Gaza on 1 April 2024 and (iii) discovery of mass graves at al-Nasser hospital in Khan Younis.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The Foreign Secretary has underlined the need for Israel to ensure effective deconfliction in Gaza and ensure effective systems to guarantee the safety of humanitarian operations. It must take all possible measures to ensure the safety of medical personnel and facilities. The Foreign Secretary has made our position clear to his Israeli counterparts, including during his visit to the region on 17 April, and we continue to raise this with Israel at the highest levels.
Reports of the discovery of mass graves in Gaza, including within medical facilities, are deeply concerning. We continue to call on all parties to respect International Humanitarian Law and ensure the protection of civilians.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, pursuant to the Answer of 26 April 2024 to Question 22287 on Gaza: Aid Workers and with reference to the investigation by the IDF which reported on 5 April 2024, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of that investigation into the killing of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers on 1 April 2024.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
As the Foreign Secretary has said we are carefully reviewing the initial findings of Israel's investigations into the killing of World Central Kitchen aid workers and welcome the suspension of two officers as a first step. Their inquiry so far has highlighted failures in deconfliction processes and the unacceptable conduct of the IDF personnel involved. This must never happen again.
The Foreign Secretary has underlined the need for Israel to ensure effective deconfliction in Gaza and ensure effective systems to guarantee the safety of humanitarian operations. We continue to raise this with Israel at the highest levels.
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of plans by Israeli settler movement organisations to march to Gaza on 15 May 2024 with the aim of establishing new settlements there.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The UK policy on settlement expansion is clear: settlements are illegal under international law and only make it harder to progress to achieving peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians. We have called on the Israeli Government to halt seizures of Palestinian lands immediately.
On 3 May, the Foreign Secretary announced new sanctions on extremist groups and individuals for inciting and perpetrating settler violence in the West Bank. The measures impose financial restrictions on the entities and individuals, and travel restrictions on the individuals. The UK will not hesitate to take further action if needed, including through further sanctions.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, how many girls have been supported by UK Official Development Assistance funding to (a) enter and (b) continue education.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
Girls' education is a UK international development priority. We champion the right of every girl to access 12 years of quality education. Since 2015, UK Official Development Assistance has supported over 10 million girls to gain a decent education. The FCDO supports girls to access education through a number of mechanisms. Our Girls' Education Challenge programme has enabled over 1.6 million of the most marginalised girls to access education. We have 18 bilateral education programmes globally, and we are one of the leading donors to the global funds for Education - the Global Partnership for Education and Education Cannot Wait (ECW). Between 2017 and 2021, ECW supported over 6.9 million children (48 percent girls) to access education.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, whether he is having discussions with Gazans living in the UK on Government support for their relatives living in Gaza.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
Palestinians are facing a devastating and growing humanitarian crisis. The UK is playing a leadership role in alleviating that suffering. We more than trebled our aid commitment this past year and we are doing everything we can to get more aid in as quickly as possible by land, sea and air.
The Government has met several times with the Palestinian Ambassador and Head of Palestine Mission, Dr Husam Zomlot, to discuss the UK's humanitarian response. The Deputy Foreign Secretary last met him on 08 April and Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon met him on 27 February.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have made an assessment of the impact of emerging artificial intelligence capacities on the necessity for foreign language learning.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Studying a language can be extremely rewarding and exciting for children and young people. It can provide insight into other cultures and open the door to travel and employment opportunities. Whilst Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be useful in enhancing the experience of learning a language, and this should be explored further, it should not be seen as a replacement.
The department wants to capitalise on the opportunities technology like AI presents for education, as well as addressing its risks and challenges. Responses to the call for evidence on generative AI in education highlighted the potential for this technology in generating language exercises and conversational prompts, for example. Language learning was one of the use cases tested as part of the department's Generative AI Hackathon project. The report of this project is due to be published shortly. The most important thing for a high-quality education is having a human expert teacher in the classroom. The emergence of this technology does not change that.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they have taken in response to the issuing of practice recommendations to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office by the Information Commissioner’s Office, following its assessment that the information request handling processes of that department "do not conform to parts 1, 4 and 5 of the section 45 Freedom of Information Code of Practice".
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The FCDO takes its responsibilities under the Freedom of Information Act very seriously and will continue to strive to answer Freedom of Information (FOI) requests within the required timescales.
We welcome the Information Commissioner's Office's (ICO) Practice Recommendations and have agreed to publish a full response by the 31 May 2024 as requested. We are considering all of their recommendations and are constructing a detailed implementation plan to improve our timeliness.