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  • Harry Harpham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Harry Harpham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Harry Harpham on 2015-09-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure that parties to the conflict in Yemen exercise maximum restraint and adhere to their obligations under international humanitarian law.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    We are aware of reports of alleged violations of international humanitarian law (IHL) in Yemen by all sides to the conflict and take these very seriously. We have raised our concerns with the Saudi Arabian authorities and have received repeated assurances of IHL compliance and we continue to engage with them on those assurances. We have also raised our concerns with the Houthis on the importance of compliance with international human rights law.

  • Harry Harpham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Harry Harpham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Harry Harpham on 2015-09-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that humanitarian aid can reach families in the North of Yemen despite the blockade of port Hodieda.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    We remain very concerned about access for commercial and humanitarian shipping in Yemen. The UK has made clear to all parties that access for commercial goods and humanitarian aid, including via Hodeidah port, must be improved, and emphasised the importance of the non-politicisation of aid. The UK is also supporting the UN in working with the Saudi Arabian-led coalition and Government of Yemen to make the system for verifying shipping more efficient. The UK has so far announced £75 million in humanitarian aid – delivered through UN agencies and humanitarian NGOs – to support Yemenis affected by the crisis.

  • Harry Harpham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Harry Harpham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Harry Harpham on 2015-09-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if the Government will make representations to all parties in the conflict in Yemen to ensure humanitarian access.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    We have made clear to all parties to the conflict that they must take all reasonable steps to facilitate access for humanitarian aid, and have emphasised the importance of non-politicisation of aid, as well as the need to facilitate access for commercial goods. The UK is also supporting the UN in working with the Saudi-led military coalition and Government of Yemen to make the system for verifying shipping more efficient, which should further ease access for aid. The Foreign Secretary met President Hadi on 28 September and spoke to Saudi Foreign Minister Al Jubeir on 29 September in the margins of the UN General Assembly, and underlined the importance the UK attaches to finding a political solution to the current crisis as soon as possible. The Foreign Secretary also reinforced the necessity of full compliance with international humanitarian law and of facilitating access humanitarian and commercial shipping to the Saudi Foreign Minister. The Secretary of State for International Development, my right hon. Friend the Member for Putney (Justine Greening) co-chaired an international meeting on the Yemen humanitarian crisis on 28 September in the margins of the UN General Assembly. This was attended by representatives of the military coalition governments and by the government of Yemen. In this meeting, she reiterated that it was critical for all parties to the conflict to facilitate immediate humanitarian access into and within Yemen, and lift any restrictions on commercial and humanitarian shipping. To tackle the humanitarian crisis, the UK has so far announced £75 million – through UN agencies and humanitarian NGOs – to support Yemenis affected by the crisis, including those forced to flee their homes, with emergency shelter, healthcare, water and food assistance, as well as supporting UN work to co-ordinate the humanitarian response.

  • Gavin Newlands – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Gavin Newlands – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gavin Newlands on 2015-09-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have been deported from each of the UK’s refugee detention centres in each of the last five years.

    Mr John Hayes

    Theattachedtable provides the total number of people leaving detention and subsequently removed from the UK, in each year from 2010 to 2014. Deportations are a specific subset of removals which are enforced either following a criminal conviction or when it is judged that a person’s removal from the UK is conducive to the public good. The deportation order prohibits the person returning to the UK until such time as it may be revoked. It is not possible to identify deportations separately from total removals. The Home Office publishes quarterly and annual statistics on the number of people leaving detention and subsequently removed within the Immigration Statistics release. Data on people leaving detention by reason are available in the latest release, Immigration Statistics April – June 2015 tables dt_08 from GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/home-office/series/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release

  • Andrew Stephenson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Andrew Stephenson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Stephenson on 2015-09-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to offer support to the World Health Organisation to ensure that it is transparent, accountable and better able to respond to emergencies such as the ebola crisis.

    Jane Ellison

    We are working with other relevant Departments across Government, and as members of the World Health Organization (WHO) Executive Board to drive the reform process. We want to ensure that WHO focuses on what it can do best and is better equipped to address the increasingly complex challenges of the 21st Century.

    In response to the Ebola crisis, we have committed up to $10million to the WHO Contingency Fund, to help finance the rapid scaling up of the WHO’s initial response to outbreaks and emergencies with health consequences. We are supporting the establishment of the Global Health Emergency Workforce and are developing plans to establish a United Kingdom rapid response team that would complement this mechanism. Linked to this we are working with WHO to ensure the establishment of a new emergency response platform which will unite and direct all WHO outbreak and emergency response operations within its mandate.

    We are also contributing to the member state driven governance reform process, to support ambitious reform of these aspects; including the establishment of a clear and accountable leadership across all levels of the organisation. As members of the Programme Budget and Administration Committee, we are pressing WHO to improve aspects of compliance controls, transparency and delivery of results.

  • Sarah Champion – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Sarah Champion – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Champion on 2015-09-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he is taking to help protect people defending women’s rights in Egypt.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    We regularly raise the importance of human rights, including women’s, with the Egyptian government at both ministerial and official levels, and our Embassy in Cairo continues to monitor alleged cases of sexual and gender-based violence. In 2014 the UK sponsored a delegation of Egyptian Ministry of Justice officials to meet UK counterparts and discuss issues of gender-based violence. These discussions helped inform drafting of the new Egyptian law passed under interim President Adly Mansour, which criminalised sexual harassment in Egypt for the first time. At the UN’s Universal Periodic Review of Egypt’s human rights situation on 5 November 2014 the UK made recommendations focussing on the ability of civil society to operate freely and the protection of women’s rights, which were accepted by Egypt. We continue to discuss the issue of gender-based violence with the Government of Egypt and are seeking practical ways that we can work together in this area.

  • Sarah Champion – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Sarah Champion – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Champion on 2015-09-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to the Egyptian government on the prosecution of Azza Soliman, a women’s right lawyer; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    We are aware of the case of Azza Soliman and concerned at the circumstances under which Ms Soliman became a defendant. We have raised Ms Soliman’s case with the Egyptian Ambassador in London, most recently on 23 April 2015. In September 2015, FCO officials held meetings in both London and Cairo with Ms Soliman, to discuss her case. We have also discussed this case with our partners in Cairo and have been represented at the trial hearings through the EU. We will continue to raise our concerns with Egyptian Government.

  • Sarah Champion – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Sarah Champion – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Champion on 2015-09-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the human rights situation in Egypt.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    The Foreign and Commonwealth Office published its annual Human Rights and Democracy Report on 12 March 2015, which provides an assessment of the situation in Egypt, and is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/case-studies/country-case-study-egypt

  • Henry Smith – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Henry Smith – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Henry Smith on 2015-09-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many catheter associated urinary tract infection related deaths there were in the last three years.

    Jane Ellison

    This information is not available in the format requested.

  • Henry Smith – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Henry Smith – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Henry Smith on 2015-09-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people were admitted to hospital as an emergency case with acute retention of urine due to a blocked Foley catheter in the last three years.

    Jane Ellison

    The requested information is not available centrally as Hospital Episode Statistics cannot identify blocked catheters or the type of catheter in use.