Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, how many requests for consular support were made to each British Embassy or Consulate in 2023; and how many of those were responded to by officials within a period of 24 hours.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Our consular staff endeavour to give appropriate and tailored assistance 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year, to British nationals overseas and their families in the UK who need support. In 2023, in addition to long running cases, we provided support to around 22,000 British nationals, see breakdown by Post in the table below. The FCDO reports publicly on consular delivery through the FCDO Outcome Delivery Plan [https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/foreign-commonwealth-development-office-outcome-delivery-plan]. Publishing our transparency data is currently on hold while we embed a new Case Management system.
COUNTRY | 2023 |
Afghanistan | 22 |
Albania | 63 |
Algeria | 23 |
Angola | |
Argentina | 34 |
Armenia | 8 |
Australia | 414 |
Austria | 92 |
Azerbaijan | 12 |
Bahrain | 48 |
Barbados | 113 |
Belarus | 6 |
Belgium | 152 |
Bolivia | 12 |
Bosnia and Herzegovina | 12 |
Botswana | 15 |
Brazil | 88 |
Bulgaria | 166 |
Cambodia | 112 |
Cameroon | 30 |
Canada | 181 |
Chile | 21 |
China | 143 |
Colombia | 73 |
Congo (Democratic Republic) | 22 |
Costa Rica | 39 |
Croatia | 114 |
Cuba | 29 |
Cyprus | 441 |
Czechia | 141 |
Denmark | 88 |
Dominican Republic | 67 |
Ecuador | 13 |
Egypt | 383 |
Estonia | 19 |
Ethiopia | 104 |
Fiji | 21 |
Finland | 49 |
France | 1027 |
Georgia | 27 |
Germany | 662 |
Ghana | 85 |
Greece | 936 |
Guatemala | 43 |
Guinea | |
Guyana | 17 |
Hong Kong SAR | 110 |
Hungary | 131 |
Iceland | 17 |
India | 360 |
Indonesia | 196 |
Iraq | 46 |
Ireland | 104 |
Israel | 39 |
Italy | 411 |
Ivory Coast | |
Jamaica | 179 |
Japan | 167 |
Jerusalem | 61 |
Jordan | 71 |
Kazakhstan | 14 |
Kenya | 146 |
Kuwait | 30 |
Kyrgyzstan | |
Laos | 29 |
Latvia | 20 |
Lebanon | 34 |
Liberia | |
Lithuania | 23 |
Luxembourg | 10 |
Madagascar | |
Malawi | |
Malaysia | 138 |
Malta | 106 |
Mauritius | 14 |
Mexico | 207 |
Moldova | 13 |
Mongolia | 6 |
Montenegro | 33 |
Morocco | 222 |
Myanmar (Burma) | 8 |
Namibia | 9 |
Nepal | 21 |
Netherlands | 287 |
New Zealand | 127 |
Nigeria | 74 |
Norway | 149 |
Oman | 50 |
Pakistan | 376 |
Panama | 17 |
Paraguay | |
Peru | 58 |
Philippines | 283 |
Poland | 242 |
Portugal | 524 |
Qatar | 96 |
Romania | 89 |
Russia | 28 |
Rwanda | 7 |
Saudi Arabia | 166 |
Senegal | 21 |
Serbia | 29 |
Seychelles | 11 |
Sierra Leone | 15 |
Singapore | 105 |
Slovakia | 38 |
Slovenia | 17 |
South Africa | 195 |
South Korea | 40 |
Spain | 4143 |
Sri Lanka | 86 |
St Lucia | 21 |
Sudan | 34 |
Sweden | 110 |
Switzerland | 157 |
Taiwan | 22 |
Tajikistan | 6 |
Tanzania | 36 |
Thailand | 1383 |
The Gambia | 48 |
Trinidad and Tobago | 40 |
Tunisia | 75 |
Turkey | 947 |
Uganda | 52 |
Ukraine | 56 |
United Arab Emirates | 658 |
United States | 1649 |
Uruguay | 10 |
Uzbekistan | 8 |
Venezuela | |
Vietnam | 188 |
Zambia | 22 |
Zimbabwe | 26 |
NB We do not publish data where figures are 5 or below to comply with GDPR
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what information they have on countries currently implementing immunisation programmes for infant respiratory syncytial virus with regard to (1) acceptance and uptake, and (2) hospitalisations.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In the United States, as of 31 January 2024, maternal immunisation was 17.9%. By February 2024, 43% of infants under eight months old had received a dose of nirsevimab.
In Galicia, Spain, 92.9% of 5,357 infants born from 25 September 2023 to 4 February 2024 had nirsevimab, as well as 79.7% of 5,823 infants included in a catch-up programme. The peak of the hospitalisation rate in infants under six months old was 102 per 100,000 in 2023/24, during the week starting 27 November 2023. This is compared to a median of 776 for 2017/18, 2018/19 and 2019/20, peaking during the first week of the January.
In Luxembourg, 84% of 1524 infants born in hospital between early October and mid-December 2023 received nirsevimab. Luxembourg observed a decrease in hospitalisation in infants under six months old of 69%, between the 2022/23 and 2023/24 respiratory syncytial virus seasons.
Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have any plans to introduce a phase-out of pesticides in public, urban spaces under local authority control, as has been done in countries such as Luxembourg.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
It is for each Local Authority to decide the best way of delivering effective and cost-effective weed control in its operations without harming people or the environment. There is a legal requirement to minimise the use of pesticides in areas used by the public.
Further, it is vital that everyone who uses pesticides professionally is appropriately trained and utilises the highest standards of practice possible to protect the public and the environment from the risks associated with pesticide use.
This includes fully engaging with effective Integrated Pest Management (IPM). We are working with stakeholders in the sector to ensure pesticide users fully utilise IPM and reduce their reliance on chemical pesticides and increase their standards.
Asked by: Maria Eagle (Labour - Garston and Halewood)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 17 November 2023 to Question 1027 on Military Attachés, if he will publish an updated list of countries without a resident UK Defence Attache.
Answered by James Heappey
The Global Defence Network (GDN) utilises Resident and Non-Resident Defence Attachés (DA), who engage in Defence diplomacy in over three-quarters of the world’s nations. The table below has a list of countries covered on a Non-Residential Accreditations (NRA) basis, where a UK DA is not resident in country, but a DA elsewhere has the responsibility.
Country (NRA) | Location of DA |
Angola | Mozambique - Maputo |
Anguilla (British overseas territory) | Jamaica - Kingston |
Antigua & Barbuda | Jamaica - Kingston |
Armenia | Georgia – Tbilisi |
Azerbaijan | Georgia – Tbilisi |
Bahamas | Jamaica - Kingston |
Barbados | Jamaica - Kingston |
Belarus | Ukraine – Kyiv |
Belize | Jamaica - Kingston |
Benin | Accra - Ghana |
Bermuda (British overseas territory) | USA – Washington DC |
Botswana | Harare - Zimbabwe |
British Virgin Islands (British overseas territory) | Jamaica - Kingston |
Burkina Faso | Ghana - Accra |
Burundi | Uganda – Kampala |
Cambodia | (In process of transferring to) Vietnam - Hanoi |
Cayman Islands (British overseas territory) | Jamaica – Kingston |
Chad | Cameroon - Yaoundé |
Cuba | Mexico – Mexico City |
Djibouti | Ethiopia – Addis Ababa |
Dominica | Jamaica - Kingston |
Dominican Republic | Jamaica - Kingston |
Democratic Republic of the Congo | Kampala - Uganda |
Eritrea | Sana’a - Yemen (temporarily relocated to Riyadh) |
Ecuador | Bogota - Colombia |
Grenada | Jamaica - Kingston |
Guinea | Sierra Leone – Freetown |
Guyana | Jamaica - Kingston |
Guatemala | Mexico – Mexico City |
Guinea-Bissau | Senegal - Dakar |
Haiti | Jamaica - Kingston |
Hungary | Croatia - Zagreb |
Iceland | Norway - Oslo |
Ivory Coast | Ghana – Accra |
Khartoum | Egypt - Cairo |
Kosovo | Macedonia - Skopje |
Kyrgyzstan | Kazakhstan – Astana |
Laos | (in process of transferring to) Vietnam - Hanoi |
Lesotho | South Africa - Pretoria |
Liberia | Sierra Leone - Freetown |
Luxembourg | Belgium - Brussels |
Malawi | Zimbabwe – Harare |
Mali | Senegal - Dakar |
Malta | Rome - Italy |
Mauritania | Morocco – Rabat |
Monaco | France – Paris |
Mongolia | Japan – Tokyo |
Myanmar | Thailand - Bangkok |
Montserrat (British overseas territory) | Jamaica - Kingston |
Namibia | South Africa – Pretoria |
Niger | Cameroon – Yaoundé |
Papua New Guinea | Australia – Canberra |
Paraguay | Argentina – Buenos Aires |
Peru | Colombia - Bogota |
Rwanda | Uganda – Kampala |
Seychelles | Kenya - Nairobi |
St Kitts & Nevis | Jamaica - Kingston |
St Lucia | Jamaica - Kingston |
St Vincent | Jamaica - Kingston |
Slovakia | Czech Rep - Prague |
Slovenia | Austria – Vienna |
South Sudan | Addis Ababa – Ethiopia |
Switzerland | Vienna - Austria |
Syria | Lebanon - Beirut |
Tajikistan | Kazakhstan – Astana |
Tanzania | Kenya – Nairobi |
The Gambia | Senegal - Dakar |
Timor-Leste (East Timor) | Indonesia - Jakarta |
Togo | Ghana – Accra |
Tonga | Fiji – Suva |
Trinidad & Tobago | Jamaica - Kingston |
Turkmenistan | Uzbekistan - Tashkent |
Turks & Caicos Islands (British overseas territory) | Jamaica - Kingston |
Uruguay | Argentina - Buenos Aires |
Vanuatu | Fiji – Suva |
Venezuela | Bogota - Colombia |
Zambia | Zimbabwe - Harare |
Supported by MOD from in the UK |
|
Cape Verdi Islands |
|
Congo |
|
Gabon |
|
Panama |
|
Puerto Rica |
|
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, whether he is seeking to secure additional bilateral voting rights agreements with EU states to ensure EU citizens who arrived in the UK from 2021 onwards can continue voting in local elections after May 2024.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
In December 2018, the UK wrote to all 27 EU Member States signalling our willingness to enter into bilateral agreements to ensure continuity of local election voting and candidacy rights for each other's citizens. Since 2018, we have entered into five bilateral agreements, these are: Spain, Portugal, Luxembourg, Poland and very recently Denmark, which is subject to Parliamentary ratification. The existence of constitutional barriers in some Member States has prevented the UK from entering into agreements with certain Member States. However, the UK remains open to negotiating fully reciprocal bilateral agreements where EU Member States are interested in doing so.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, pursuant to the Answer of 11 January to Question 8388 on Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Procurement, if he will take steps to either (a) ensure that hon. Members can log in to his Department's Jaggaer e-sourcing tool to access the information referred to in that Answer or (b) make alternative arrangements for hon. Members to access that information by other means.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The sixteen locations where the services are required are detailed below:
Location |
Addis Ababa |
Beijing |
Berlin |
Boston |
Brasilia |
Buenos Aires |
Canberra |
Dublin |
Geneva |
Luxembourg |
Ottawa |
Prague |
Pretoria |
Stockholm |
Vienna |
Wellington |
This information is available within the tender documentation outlined within Attachment 4 - Statement of Service Requirements under Paragraph 5.4. This information is available via the FCDO e-sourcing tool Jaggaer which is accessible by suppliers: [https://fcdo.bravosolution.co.uk/web/login.html], interested suppliers are able to create a log in and access the documents via this system.
Additionally, once the contract has been awarded, a contract award notice along with a redacted contract will be published via Contracts Finder, [https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder].
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, whether she had discussions with her counterpart in Luxembourg before laying the Gender Recognition (Approved Countries and Territories and Saving Provision) Order 2023 on the removal of that country from the list of approved countries and territories to qualify applicants for the overseas route to apply for gender recognition certificates.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
We conducted thorough research in collaboration with the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office to verify our understanding of each overseas system in question, to then measure against the UK’s standard route to obtain gender recognition.
The Minister for Women and Equalities has been in conversations with the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office throughout this entire process and is monitoring the international reaction to this legislation. Diplomatic posts have been consulted on and notified of the changes, and we have provided them with comprehensive question and answer documents that address any potential misconceptions of what this Order does. We have benefited greatly from this collaboration and I am confident that our international counterparts are well informed about this piece of legislation and its outcomes.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department holds information on the countries that will implement the OECD Pillar 2 minimum corporation tax measures from 31 December 2023; and what discussions he has had with (a) the OECD and (b) his counterparts in other countries on the implementation of that measure.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Countries that have committed to apply Pillar 2 from 31 December 2023 or 1 January 2024 include: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Vietnam. Japan are implementing for 1 April 2024.
Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey, Hong-Kong and Singapore have committed to implement for 1 January 2025.
There are many other jurisdictions that have taken steps towards Pillar 2 implementation.
There are regular multilateral discussions at Ministerial level, including at the level of the G20, on how to ensure swift and coordinated implementation of Pillar 2, as well as the support that can be provided to developing countries in that regard.
Asked by: Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the tax incentives offered by (1) Czechia, (2) Latvia, (3) Luxembourg, and (4) Sweden, to support the further rollout of renewable biofuels, such as Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO); and what plans they have to introduce similar incentives in the UK.
Answered by Baroness Penn - Minister on Leave (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State)
Hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) is taxed at the same rate as diesel and required to be marked if used for an allowed purpose. The Government is aware that other countries use tax incentives to increase the uptake of HVO, but differences between tax systems make direct comparison difficult.
The UK Government encourages the use of HVO through the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO), which incentivises the use of low carbon fuels and reduces emissions from fuel supplied for use in transport and non-road mobile machinery. The RTFO has been highly successful in supporting a market for renewable fuel since its introduction in 2008.
In addition, the forthcoming Biomass Strategy will review the amount of sustainable biomass available to the UK, including liquid biofuels such as HVO, and how this could be best used across the economy to achieve our net zero target. It is important to ensure that biomass is prioritised within the economy where it offers the greatest opportunity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in ‘hard to abate’ sectors where there are fewer options to decarbonise through alternative low carbon technologies.
The Government keeps all taxes under review.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on banning the use of antibiotics in healthy farm animals.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Secretary of State has regular discussions with Cabinet colleagues on a wide range of issues.
The Government takes a ‘One Health’ approach to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as set out in the UK National Action Plan on AMR. Officials from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), Defra and the Veterinary Medicines Directorate meet regularly to consider appropriate actions to address AMR across the human and animal health sectors. This has included discussion on the use of antibiotics to prevent disease in farm animals.
Defra is a co-signatory with DHSC of the UK's AMR five-year National Action Plan (2019-2024) and the UK's 20-year Vision to Contain and Control AMR by 2040. Defra leads on the animal, plant and environment elements of the National Action Plan. A key ambition of these strategies is the appropriate use of antibiotics in humans and animals so that they continue to be an effective tool to treat infections when needed. The Government is committed to reducing unnecessary use of antibiotics in animals while safeguarding animal welfare. It has been our position for many years that we do not support the routine or predictable use of antibiotics, including where antibiotics are used to compensate for inadequate farming practices.
To date in the UK, collaborative working between the Government, the veterinary profession and the agriculture sectors to focus on these issues has resulted in our national sales of veterinary antibiotics reducing by 55% since 2014, and in 2021 we recorded the lowest antibiotic use to date. The UK is one of the lowest users of veterinary antibiotics across Europe, with only seven other European countries having sold fewer antibiotics in 2021 (Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Finland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia). Changes to the law on veterinary medicines represent one tool which can be used to help effect reductions in antibiotic prescribing in animals. The Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2013 are currently under review, and the feedback from the recently closed consultation public consultation will be analysed and considered.