Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what environmental projects have been funded through Darwin Plus in Antartica since 2019.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Since 2019, Darwin Plus has funded 22 environmental projects of benefit to the Falkland Islands. These are listed in the table below.
Please visit the Darwin Plus website at https://darwinplus.org.uk/ for full details of funded projects.
Project reference | Project title | UK Overseas Territories involved |
DPLUS146 | Red Listing can protect OT marine biodiversity | British Antarctic Territory, Falkland Islands, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands |
DPLUS110 | Recognise, protect, restore: driving sound stewardship of Falklands peat wetlands | Falkland Islands |
DPLUS115 | Unlocking Falkland Islands Marine Management: Key Biodiversity Areas for seabirds | Falkland Islands |
DPLUS116 | Falklands wetlands and aquatic habitats: baselines for monitoring future change | Falkland Islands |
DPLUS126 | Advancing Falklands and region-scale management of globally important whale populations | Falkland Islands |
DPLUS139 | Improving Falklands marine management effectiveness for marine higher predators | Falkland Islands |
DPLUS148 | Climate change resilience in Falkland Islands fisheries and marine ecosystems | Falkland Islands |
DPLUS167 | Pathogens as a threat to seabirds in the Falkland Islands | Falkland Islands |
DPLUS168 | Understanding increased FI seal bycatch to inform bycatch Action Plan | Falkland Islands |
DPLUS169 | New Island: completing preparatory steps for restoration against invasive mammals | Falkland Islands |
DPLUS182 | Habitat restoration and species re-introductions on four Falklands island reserves | Falkland Islands |
DPL00047 | Increasing environmental monitoring capacity on FI: a Thermal Imaging UAV | Falkland Islands |
DPL00058 | Fire Contingency Planning for Offshore Islands | Falkland Islands |
CV19RR02 | Establishing wildlife health and disease monitoring in the Falkland Islands | Falkland Islands |
DPL00002 | Restoring native tussac grassland habitat | Falkland Islands |
DPL00006 | Restoring peat soils and tussac grass habitat in the Falklands | Falkland Islands |
DPL00020 | Data driven solutions to land management and climate change adaptation | Falkland Islands |
DPL00025 | Building farm biodiversity planning and monitoring capacity for sustainable management | Falkland Islands |
DPLUS092 | Seabird sentinels: mapping potential bycatch risk using bird-borne radar | Falkland Islands, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands |
DPLUS094 | Developing Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) tools for Turks and Caicos | Falkland Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands |
DPLUS175 | Enhancing monitoring and prevention of invasive non-native species across UKOTs | Gibraltar, Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (on Cyprus), South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory, St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, Turks and Caicos Islands, British Indian Ocean Territory, Bermuda, Anguilla, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands |
DPLUS174 | A cross-UKOT camera network to enhance marine predator conservation | Montserrat, St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, Gibraltar, Falkland Islands, British Antarctic Territory, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands |
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what environmental projects have been funded through Darwin Plus in the Falkland Islands since 2019.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Since 2019, Darwin Plus has funded 6 environmental projects of benefit to the British Antarctic Territory. These are listed in the table below.
Please visit the Darwin Plus website at https://darwinplus.org.uk/ for full details of funded projects.
Project reference | Project title | UK Overseas Territories involved |
DPLUS185 | Safeguarding Antarctic krill stocks for baleen whales | British Antarctic Territory |
DPL00008 | Biodiversity Survey and Environmental Management Plan in Antarctica | British Antarctic Territory (BAT) |
DPLUS146 | Red Listing can protect OT marine biodiversity | British Antarctic Territory, Falkland Islands, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands |
DPLUS166 | Improving identification of fish bycatch in the Antarctic krill fishery | British Antarctic Territory, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands |
DPLUS175 | Enhancing monitoring and prevention of invasive non-native species across UKOTs | Gibraltar, Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (on Cyprus), South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory, St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, Turks and Caicos Islands, British Indian Ocean Territory, Bermuda, Anguilla, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands |
DPLUS174 | A cross-UKOT camera network to enhance marine predator conservation | Montserrat, St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, Gibraltar, Falkland Islands, British Antarctic Territory, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands |
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much funding has been provided by Darwin Plus by country in each of the last five years.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Darwin Plus is a competitive UK Government grants scheme that provides funding for environmental projects in the UK Overseas Territories. Since 2019, UK government spending on Darwin Plus has increased year on year to a record high of £6.85m in 22/23, reflecting the rising breadth and quality of applications to our schemes. Projects are selected on their merit at application supported by the advice of independent experts currently sat on the Darwin Plus Advisory Group. Darwin Plus funding per territory over the last five years can be found below:
Overseas Territory | Grant Funding from 2019 - 2024 |
Anguilla | £2,702,538.47 |
Bermuda | £562,703.60 |
British Antarctic Territory | £935,916.75 |
British Indian Ocean Territory | £1,233,527.92 |
British Virgin Islands | £3,660,593.29 |
Cayman Islands | £2,871,387.06 |
Falkland Islands | £3,137,812.11 |
Gibraltar | £169,956.10 |
Montserrat | £2,071,315.89 |
Pitcairn, Henderson, Oeno and Ducie Islands | £423,105.00 |
St Helena, Ascension and Tristan Da Cunha | £5,918,668.62 |
South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands | £4,412,383.75 |
Sovereign Base Area of Akrotiri and Dhekelia | £1,176,523.50 |
Turks and Caicos Islands | £3,462,690.14 |
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to reports that spending on overseas cyber security programmes doubled last year, what assessment they have made of the impact of that increased spending on the cyber safety of (1) citizens, and (2) businesses.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
Programming on cyber security plays an important role in protecting commercial opportunities and sustaining UK competitiveness in a key growth sector as well as helping organisations and citizens better manage cyber risks. The Financial Year 2022/23 Annual Report on the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund highlighted increased spending and the transfer of a wide range of skills overseas to support UK cyber security objectives. This included public awareness campaigns and training with national Computer Security Incident Response Teams, ensuring critical assets overseas are better protected from cyber-attacks. As a result, UK Government-funded projects have led to the arrest of cyber criminals across Africa, improved threat intelligence sharing in the Indo Pacific, and supported the implementation of a new national Cyber strategy in Georgia.
Asked by: Angela Crawley (Scottish National Party - Lanark and Hamilton East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has made an assessment of the conformity of adding Georgia to the list of Safe States with the duties laid out in section 80AA(4) of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 on LGBTQI+ people seeking asylum.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
In order to inform ministerial decision making on whether to add India and Georgia to the list of Safe States in section 80AA of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 (NIAA 2002), we made an assessment of the general situation in both countries, using evidence from a wide range of reliable sources in order to do so. This was in line with the requirements at section 80AA(3) and 80AA(4) of the NIAA 2002 (as inserted by section 59(3)(3) and 59(3)(4) of the Illegal Migration Act 2023).
Through considering country information and each country’s respect for the rule of law and human rights, we assessed that both countries met the criteria. Further information on the situation for LGBT people in Georgia and India is contained within our published Country Policy and Information Notes, available on Gov.Uk.
Asked by: Angela Crawley (Scottish National Party - Lanark and Hamilton East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has made an assessment of the conformity of adding India to the list of Safe States with the duties laid out in section 80AA(4) of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 on LGBTQI+ people seeking asylum.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
In order to inform ministerial decision making on whether to add India and Georgia to the list of Safe States in section 80AA of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 (NIAA 2002), we made an assessment of the general situation in both countries, using evidence from a wide range of reliable sources in order to do so. This was in line with the requirements at section 80AA(3) and 80AA(4) of the NIAA 2002 (as inserted by section 59(3)(3) and 59(3)(4) of the Illegal Migration Act 2023).
Through considering country information and each country’s respect for the rule of law and human rights, we assessed that both countries met the criteria. Further information on the situation for LGBT people in Georgia and India is contained within our published Country Policy and Information Notes, available on Gov.Uk.
Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what steps he is taking to help preserve penguin populations in the Overseas Territories.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Many protections already exist for penguins in the Overseas Territories. These include the Marine Protected Area around South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands, and the Antarctic Treaty System. The Government also supports biodiversity through Darwin Plus which, since 2012, has invested over £47 million in over 260 projects. Projects have aimed to conserve northern rockhopper penguins on Tristan da Cunha, and improve native tussac grassland to improve breeding habitat for Magellanic penguins in the Falkland Islands. In the UK-OT Joint Declaration, we committed to strengthen our partnership to protect and sustainably manage our unique and globally significant environments.
Asked by: Lord Randall of Uxbridge (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to strengthen the marine protected area surrounding South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (GSGSSI) is currently undertaking the second 5-year review of its Marine Protected Area (MPA). The review is considering the effectiveness of the current MPA measures, including whether the underpinning scientific research and monitoring is sufficient, particularly in light of climate change, and whether effective monitoring and surveillance capacity is in place. The review will determine whether additional measures are required to achieve the stated MPA objectives. GSGSSI is committed to reporting on its review by early next year.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, whether he has had discussions with the Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (SGSSI) on the potential merits of including the precautionary principle as part of the marine protected area review underway in SGSSI.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (SGSSI) Marine Protected Area (MPA) provides comprehensive protection across the entire maritime zone, which also allows small scale, highly regulated fishing, in a way that protects the unique marine ecosystem. The fishery is highly precautionary and has been rated as one of the most sustainable in the world by the Marine Stewardship Council. The Government of SGSSI is currently undertaking the second 5-year review of its MPA. The review is considering the effectiveness of the current MPA measures, including whether the underpinning scientific research and monitoring is sufficient, particularly in light of climate change. The review will determine whether additional measures are required to achieve the stated MPA objectives. The Government of SGSSI is committed to reporting on its review by early next year.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
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 impact of climate change on (a) fishing and (b) krill stocks in South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Climate change is likely to result in lower oxygen and greater acidity in the waters around South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (SGSSI), together with reduced sea ice and increasing iceberg scour. Over time, these will likely lead to changes in the distribution and range of many of SGSSI's marine species, with krill and krill-eating animals likely to move further south, as new species from lower latitudes will become established in the region. The Government of SGSSI's ongoing review of the Marine Protected Area (MPA) will consider any new information on the effects of climate change and whether the current MPA measures are sufficiently precautionary given the level of regional warming.