Asked by: Baroness Royall of Blaisdon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether there is a cap on the combined total for ministerial salaries in any financial year.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The number of ministerial salaries available to the government at any one time is 109. This is a statutory limit governed by the Ministerial and Other Salaries Act 1975.
It is routinely the case that some ministers will be asked to serve in an unpaid capacity given the statutory limitations on the number of available salaries. A list of ministers who are currently serving in an unpaid capacity are as follows:
Richard Holden MP, Minister of State (Minister without Portfolio) in the Cabinet Office (receives a salary from the Conservative Party)
The Rt Hon John Glen MP, Minister of State and Paymaster General, Cabinet Office
The Lord Johnson of Lainston CBE, Minister of State at the Department for Business and Trade.
The Baroness Neville-Rolfe DBE CMG, Minister of State at the Cabinet Office.
The Earl of Minto, Minister of State at the Ministry of Defence.
The Rt Hon. the Earl Howe, Minister of State and Deputy Leader of the House of Lords.
The Rt Hon. the Lord Benyon, Minister of State, jointly at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
The Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, Minister of State at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
Andrew Griffith MP, Minister of State at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.
The Baroness Barran MBE, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Education and Government Equalities Spokesperson in the Lords.
The Lord Douglas-Miller OBE, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
The Lord Markham CBE, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Health and Social Care.
The Lord Bellamy KC, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Ministry of Justice
The Viscount Camrose, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.
The Lord Offord of Garvel CVO, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Business and Trade.
The Lord Cameron of Lochiel, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Scotland Office.
The Lord Roborough, Lord in Waiting (Government Whip)
The list of all government ministers on GOV.UK is updated following each reshuffle. The current government list is on gov.uk at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/ministers.
It would be a significant undertaking to calculate the exact number of unpaid ministers since 2015, especially given some ministers have dual roles (where they are paid in one role but not in another) such as if they hold more than one ministerial position. We can estimate however that over the last decade, this number has been approximately 10-20 at any given time.
It is ultimately for the Prime Minister to decide how to organise the executive and which ministers are paid a salary. While the Cabinet Office provides advice to the Prime Minister on the number of salaries available, the department does not decide the allocation of salaries.
Ministers are continuing to voluntarily waive part of their salaries, foregoing any pay increase to their Ministerial salaries. This means ministers in the Commons’ salaries have not increased since 2010; and ministers in the House of Lords have received frozen salaries since 2019. Further information is published on GOV.UK at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ministerial-salary-data.
Asked by: Michael Ellis (Conservative - Northampton North)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of the analysis of casualty figures in Gaza by the Professor of Statistics and Data Science at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, published on 7 March 2024.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
Like many of our partners, we routinely use reports from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) to monitor daily figures for casualties in Gaza. OCHA rely on reporting from the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza. Casualty figures are only one data point of many we use to understand the scale of the conflict and its impact on civilians. Satellite imagery of building damage, eye-witness accounts from hospitals and data on living conditions all feed into our assessment.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, with reference to the oral contribution of the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs of 12 March 2024, Lords Official Report, column 1910, If he will publish a summary of Treasury advice received by his Department on legislation concerning private creditors.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The Government recognises the importance of private sector lending to low-income countries. The UK, alongside international partners, expects private creditors to participate in debt restructurings on terms at least as favourable as bilateral (i.e. country) creditors.
At this time, the Government is focused on delivering a market-based (contractual) approach to private sector participation in debt restructuring, which the IMF have found to be largely effective in recent years. As part of this, the UK has led the development of Majority Voting Provisions for private syndicated loans. We engage regularly with the Treasury on this issue.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking with the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs to increase the number of aid shipments to the Middle East.
Answered by James Heappey
Defence works very closely with and to support the FCDO, who lead on humanitarian support, to make sure that aid shipments are delivered as rapidly, efficiently and safely as possible. We have supported the delivery of hundreds of tonnes of life-saving aid for Gaza, including by air, land and maritime routes. We are doing everything we can to get far more aid in, exploring new routes and pressing Israel to open more crossings and lift restrictions. The Secretaries of State regularly engage on this matter.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, if he will publish a summary of the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs' recent visit to Kosovo.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
The Foreign Secretary reflected on his recent visit to Kosovo at the Foreign Affairs Committee session on 9 January (https://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/44138eb7-41b6-47eb-9c61-e9ac76acc233), sharing his views on the severity of the attack in Banjska in September 2023 and the need for the West to ensure its approach to the Western Balkans fully accounts for Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The Government issued a press release in advance of his visit (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/foreign-secretary-to-visit-kosovo-to-underline-uk-support), and the Foreign Secretary himself gave an overview of his meeting with UK troops deployed to Kosovo as part of NATO's Kosovo Force (KFOR) during the visit (https://twitter.com/FCDOGovUK/status/1742992750079770754?s=20).
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the deaths of people in Gaza waiting for an aid convoy on 29 February, and the public statement on 1 March by the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs calling for "an urgent investigation and accountability", how many Gazans (1) died, or (2) were injured; and whether such an investigation is under way.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
As the Foreign Secretary has said, the deaths of people in Gaza waiting for an aid convoy on 29 February were horrific. We have been clear that an urgent investigation and accountability are needed, and that this must not happen again.
We continue to call for International Humanitarian Law to be respected and civilians to be protected. A shocking number of civilians have been killed. The Foreign Secretary raised the above issues with Israeli Minister Benny Gantz on 6 March.
We are calling on Israel to increase access for aid through land routes and fully open Ashdod Port, scale up the Jordan corridor with a streamlined screening and delivery process, open a crossing in northern Gaza (Karni, Erez or a new crossing point), fully open Ashdod Port for aid delivery and increase screening capacity at Kerem Shalom and Nitzana to seven days a week and extended hours.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what recent discussions he has had with aid agencies on the Rafah crossing border with Egypt.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The FCDO is actively engaging with international partners and those operating on the ground to do all we can to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. We are are working to get aid in as quickly as possible by land, sea and air, funding multiple implementing partners including UN agencies and international and UK NGOs.
There is ongoing ministerial engagement with partners. The Foreign Secretary has also appointed a Representative for Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, who is based in the region and is working intensively to address the blockages preventing more aid reaching Gaza.
The Foreign Secretary has discussed the urgency of getting significantly more aid into Gaza with Prime Minister Netanyahu. He reiterated the need for Israel to open more crossing points into Gaza, for Nitzana and Kerem Shalom to be open for longer, and for Israel to support the UN to distribute aid effectively across the whole of Gaza.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, how his Department plans to use the additional £10 million in aid funding for the Occupied Palestinian Territories to help tackle immediate humanitarian needs in Gaza.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The additional £10 million of funding for the Occupied Palestinian Territories announced by the Foreign Secretary on 13 March includes £5 million to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) Pooled Fund, core relief items, including 3,300 tents, and £3.5 million to UNICEF.
This brings total UK support to over £100 million this financial year, including 150 tonnes of UK aid, including more than 13,000 blankets and 840 family-sized tents, which entered Gaza on the 13 March, and a full field hospital, provided by UK Aid funding to UK-Med, which is arriving in Gaza from Manchester.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Melton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has had recent discussions with (a) the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs and (b) representatives of higher education institutions on the potential impact of such institutions' collaboration with Chinese higher education bodies linked to the People's Liberation Army on national security.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The government takes the risk of foreign interference in our higher education (HE) sector extremely seriously, regardless of its source. The department has made it clear that it will not accept collaborations that compromise national security. The department recognises concerns about interference in the HE sector and regularly assesses the risks facing academia, working with partners across government. The department will continue to take steps to significantly strengthen the UK’s protections from overseas interference in our HE sector, helping to safeguard intellectual property and sensitive research.
The ‘Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023’ will ensure that universities in England have the tools they need to deal with interference with, and threats to, freedom of speech and academic freedom. The Act will enable the Office for Students to monitor the overseas funding of registered HE providers and their constituent institutions and student unions, and to take appropriate action.
The department expects Confucius Institutes at UK universities to operate transparently and within the law, and with a full commitment to the government's values of openness and freedom of expression. The department has taken action to remove any direct or indirect government funding from Confucius Institutes in the UK.
The ‘Integrated Review Refresh’, published in 2023, committed to launching a review of legislative and other measures designed to protect the academic sector, to identify what more the government could or should be doing. This is currently underway and is led by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. This will include an assessment of the risks to research security as a result of collaboration with international bodies.
The department also works with the sector to improve HE providers’ overall resilience and economic security. The department has encouraged Universities UK to publish a number of guidelines and case studies to enable HE providers to assess risks associated with international collaboration.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Wales Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what directives or guidelines they have issued to the Welsh Government in relation to overseas initiatives on matters related to devolved responsibilities.
Answered by Lord Harlech - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The FCDO remains fully committed to working collaboratively with the Welsh Government and other Devolved Administrations on overseas initiatives which may support the delivery of devolved policy objectives. The FCDO has developed internal guidance to ensure that the foreign affairs reservation is respected, including requiring a UK Government official to be present at meetings between devolved ministers and ministers of foreign governments.
Since April 2023, the FCDO has supported over 15 overseas visits by Welsh Government Ministers. International activity undertaken by each of the Devolved Administrations will continue to be supported appropriately by Posts.