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1150688

registered interest
date	18/10/2019
answering body	Department for International Development
answering dept id	20
answering dept short name	International Development
answering dept sort name	International Development
hansard heading	Syria: International Assistance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent steps he has taken to support aid agencies in northern Syria.
tabling member constituency	Coventry South
tabling member printed	Mr Jim Cunningham
uin	1889
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/10/2019 answer text <p>We are deeply concerned by the ongoing situation in Northeast Syria. We remain in regular contact with our partner aid agencies to ensure they have the flexibility they need to meet increased humanitarian needs. The biggest challenge facing agencies is security of staff, with recent events resulting in NGO international staff being evacuated and local staff having to continue delivery under difficult circumstances. We continue to work with partners to ensure continued humanitarian access.</p><p> </p><p>Last financial year we provided over £40 million in humanitarian assistance in Northeast Syria, and intend to continue our support at that level this financial year; this funding is flexible and allows partners to direct resources to help those affected by Turkish military action.</p><p> </p><p>The Secretary of State has also been in contact with Sir Mark Lowcock, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, to identify any gaps in the humanitarian response, and ensure those affected by the situation in Northeast Syria are getting the support they need.</p> answering member constituency South West Wiltshire answering member printed Dr Andrew Murrison question first answered 23/10/2019 16:34:53 answering member 1466 label Biography information for Dr Andrew Murrison
tabling member	308 label Biography information for Mr Jim Cunningham

1150693

registered interest
date	18/10/2019
answering body	Department for International Development
answering dept id	20
answering dept short name	International Development
answering dept sort name	International Development
hansard heading	Developing Countries: Religious Freedom
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if he will include modules on freedom of religion or belief in his Department's capacity building programmes in Pakistan and other countries with reported violations of the right to freedom of religion or belief.
tabling member constituency	St Helens South and Whiston
tabling member printed	Ms Marie Rimmer
uin	1914
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/10/2019 answer text <p>DFID already includes elements in our capacity building programmes which benefit religious minorities in Pakistan. Our new Aawaz II Accountability, Inclusion and Reducing Modern Slavery Programme builds on the Aawaz Voice and accountability programme. It will continue to work with communities to promote rights of children, women, youth and religious minorities, protect them from exploitation, and prevent discrimination.</p><p> </p><p>Through our Skills Development Programme, we fund the Punjab Skills Development Fund to provide technical and vocational skills training to the poor and vulnerable, including those from minority communities. An exclusive skills scheme has recently been launched by this Fund for religious minorities. Under this scheme, 5,000 people from religious minorities (40% women) who are unemployed will be trained in a variety of trades.</p><p> </p><p>More widely, through UK Aid Connect, DFID is funding a consortium led by the Institute of Development Studies to address challenges in building tolerance and freedom of religion and belief. In November 2018, Lord Ahmad and Lord Bates launched a £12 million UK Aid Connect programme to promote and defend freedom of religion or belief. This will make poverty reduction programmes more inclusive by highlighting and redressing religious inequalities, with a focus on highly volatile contexts.</p> answering member constituency South West Wiltshire answering member printed Dr Andrew Murrison question first answered 25/10/2019 12:29:10 answering member 1466 label Biography information for Dr Andrew Murrison
tabling member	4457 label Biography information for Ms Marie Rimmer

1150694

registered interest
date	18/10/2019
answering body	Department for International Development
answering dept id	20
answering dept short name	International Development
answering dept sort name	International Development
hansard heading	Pakistan: Minority Groups
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if he will include the category of religious minorities to the data that his Department collects on vulnerable populations in Pakistan.
tabling member constituency	St Helens South and Whiston
tabling member printed	Ms Marie Rimmer
uin	1915
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/10/2019 answer text <p>DFID Pakistan is making efforts to include the category of religious minorities into the data that it collects on vulnerable populations by improving government data collection and protecting the rights of minorities. We currently collect data on minority status when there is a specific need for it, such as for our programmes which specifically aim at helping minority groups. We recently had some success in collecting more and better-quality data on people with disabilities in Pakistan. We learned from that and will build on it to focus our energy on collecting data from other vulnerable and minority groups.</p> answering member constituency South West Wiltshire answering member printed Dr Andrew Murrison question first answered 25/10/2019 12:30:57 answering member 1466 label Biography information for Dr Andrew Murrison
tabling member	4457 label Biography information for Ms Marie Rimmer

1150695

registered interest
date	18/10/2019
answering body	Department for International Development
answering dept id	20
answering dept short name	International Development
answering dept sort name	International Development
hansard heading	Pakistan: Training
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if his Department will provide specific training courses for religious minority candidates under the Punjab Skills Development Fund in coordination with the Punjab Government.
tabling member constituency	St Helens South and Whiston
tabling member printed	Ms Marie Rimmer
uin	1916
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/10/2019 answer text <p>Nearly 6,000 people from religious minorities have received training through the Punjab Skills Development Fund’s regular skill schemes. This Fund is launching an exclusive skills scheme for religious minorities from January 2020. Under this scheme, a further 5,000 people from religious minorities (40% women) who are unemployed will be trained in a variety of trades that will lead to work. Lessons from this experience will help the Fund further refine its interventions for minorities.</p> answering member constituency South West Wiltshire answering member printed Dr Andrew Murrison question first answered 29/10/2019 17:24:12 answering member 1466 label Biography information for Dr Andrew Murrison
tabling member	4457 label Biography information for Ms Marie Rimmer

1150696

registered interest
date	18/10/2019
answering body	Department for International Development
answering dept id	20
answering dept short name	International Development
answering dept sort name	International Development
hansard heading	Pakistan: Textbooks
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps he is taking to (a) ensure that schools in Pakistan supported by his Department do not use textbooks with content that stigmatises religious minorities and (b) encourage provincial governments in Pakistan to work with religious minority groups to remove that content.
tabling member constituency	St Helens South and Whiston
tabling member printed	Ms Marie Rimmer
uin	1917
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/10/2019 answer text <p>Inclusion and respect for minority communities forms an integral part of our provincial and national education programmes in Pakistan. Through the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Education Support Programme and the Punjab Education Support Programme II, DFID has also provided technical assistance to provincial governments to revise the school curriculum and remove discriminatory content from textbooks. Other work to promote tolerance and interfaith harmony includes: training nearly 100,000 teachers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab in equity and inclusion; funding the Alif Ailaan education campaign which focusses on religious minorities; and engaging with education civil society organisations to champion issues of inclusion and raise these with government.</p> answering member constituency South West Wiltshire answering member printed Dr Andrew Murrison question first answered 29/10/2019 17:24:27 answering member 1466 label Biography information for Dr Andrew Murrison
tabling member	4457 label Biography information for Ms Marie Rimmer

1150384

registered interest
date	17/10/2019
answering body	Department for International Development
answering dept id	20
answering dept short name	International Development
answering dept sort name	International Development
hansard heading	Uganda: Education
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent assessment he has made of the performance of for-profit organisations that deliver education in Uganda.
tabling member constituency	City of Chester
tabling member printed	Christian Matheson
uin	1710
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/10/2019 answer text <p>DFID does not currently fund for-profit organisations in Uganda to deliver education services. As a result, no recent assessment has been made of their performance.</p> answering member constituency Pendle answering member printed Andrew Stephenson grouped question UIN 1711 question first answered 24/10/2019 13:13:08 answering member 4044 label Biography information for Andrew Stephenson
tabling member	4408 label Biography information for Christian Matheson

1150385

registered interest
date	17/10/2019
answering body	Department for International Development
answering dept id	20
answering dept short name	International Development
answering dept sort name	International Development
hansard heading	Uganda: Education
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what proportion of his Department's funding for education programmes in Uganda is allocated to for-profit organisations that deliver (a) core education services in schools and (b) ancillary services.
tabling member constituency	City of Chester
tabling member printed	Christian Matheson
uin	1711
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/10/2019 answer text <p>DFID does not currently fund for-profit organisations in Uganda to deliver education services. As a result, no recent assessment has been made of their performance.</p> answering member constituency Pendle answering member printed Andrew Stephenson grouped question UIN 1710 question first answered 24/10/2019 13:13:08 answering member 4044 label Biography information for Andrew Stephenson
tabling member	4408 label Biography information for Christian Matheson

1150456

registered interest
date	17/10/2019
answering body	Department for International Development
answering dept id	20
answering dept short name	International Development
answering dept sort name	International Development
hansard heading	Developing Countries: Third Sector
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, with reference to the Answer of 3 July 2019 to Question 272862 on Developing Countries: Third Sector, what proportion of the £1.3 billion allocated by his Department to fund the work of civil society was spent on civil society organisations registered in developing countries.
tabling member constituency	Dundee West
tabling member printed	Chris Law
uin	1705
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/10/2019 answer text <p>A full answer to this question could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. DFID is committed to working with Civil Society Organisations based in developing countries. Funding is available through our country offices, and both streams of the latest funding round of UK Aid Direct were open to applications from the global south.</p> answering member constituency South West Wiltshire answering member printed Dr Andrew Murrison question first answered 24/10/2019 13:39:23 answering member 1466 label Biography information for Dr Andrew Murrison
tabling member	4403 label Biography information for Chris Law

1150457

registered interest
date	17/10/2019
answering body	Department for International Development
answering dept id	20
answering dept short name	International Development
answering dept sort name	International Development
hansard heading	Developing Countries: Human Rights
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, with reference to the Answer of 11 July 2019 to Question 272858 on Developing Countries: Human Rights, what plans he has to raise awareness of the Government document entitled, UK support for human rights defenders, to (a) his Department's staff and (b) human rights defenders.
tabling member constituency	Dundee West
tabling member printed	Chris Law
uin	1706
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/10/2019 answer text <p>FCO and DFID have conducted a number of awareness raising activities for the ‘UK Support for Human Rights Defenders’ document both before and after its publication.</p><p> </p><p>During its development a selected number of overseas diplomatic posts, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and human rights defenders were consulted. Following its publication and announcement at the Global Conference for Media Freedom in July, the document has been made available on GOV.UK in all six UN languages. The document has been sent to all posts in the UK diplomatic network encouraging them to use it in the course of their work with human rights defenders as well as to relevant policy staff in DFID headquarters.</p><p> </p><p>The document has also been circulated on external websites such as Human Rights Watch, Global Witness, and the Business &amp; Human Rights Resource Centre. The FCO and DFID will continue their outreach with human rights networks, NGOs and human rights defenders. Lord Ahmad has also written to Michelle Bachelet (UN High Commissioner for Human Rights) to inform her of the document.</p><p> </p><p>The FCO and DFID will continue to look for opportunities to further promote and publicise the document including Human Rights Defenders Day on 9 December and Human Rights Day on 10 December.</p> answering member constituency Pendle answering member printed Andrew Stephenson question first answered 24/10/2019 13:14:48 answering member 4044 label Biography information for Andrew Stephenson
tabling member	4403 label Biography information for Chris Law

1150459

registered interest
date	17/10/2019
answering body	Department for International Development
answering dept id	20
answering dept short name	International Development
answering dept sort name	International Development
hansard heading	Department for International Development: Public Appointments
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, which public appointments he is responsible for.
tabling member constituency	Hemsworth
tabling member printed	Jon Trickett
uin	1576
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/10/2019 answer text <p>The public appointments that the department is responsible for making are set out in the Schedule to the Public Appointments Order in Council 2019. <a href="https://publicappointments.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/2019-Public-Appointments-Order-In-Council.pdf" target="_blank">https://publicappointments.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/2019-Public-Appointments-Order-In-Council.pdf</a></p><p>This was last updated in April 2019.</p> answering member constituency Pendle answering member printed Andrew Stephenson question first answered 25/10/2019 12:27:31 answering member 4044 label Biography information for Andrew Stephenson
tabling member	410 label Biography information for Jon Trickett