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  • Lord Stoddart of Swindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Stoddart of Swindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2016-01-19.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, in the light of the nuclear agreement with Iran, they plan to make representations to the government of Israel to accede to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and agree to the same level of inspection now accepted by Iran.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is the cornerstone of the international nuclear non-proliferation regime and the essential foundation for the pursuit of nuclear disarmament and for peaceful uses of nuclear energy. All state parties should be pushing for universality of the treaty. In that regard, the Government continues to call on all states that are not parties to the NPT, including Israel, to accede to it, and we also continue to call on Israel to agree a full scope Comprehensive Safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

  • Lord Stoddart of Swindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Lord Stoddart of Swindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2016-01-19.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Statement by Earl Howe on 18 January concerning a gifting package to Ukraine (HLWS463), whether this gift will be financed from the overseas aid budget, the defence budget, or another source.

    Earl Howe

    The gift of 3,500 first aid kits will be purchased using funds from Her Majesty’s Government’s Conflict, Stability, and Security Fund (CSSF). The CSSF is a cross-Whitehall fund. As well as defence reform, the CSSF Ukraine programme supports a number of interventions including strategic communications, peace-building activities and support to international organisations.

  • Lord Stoddart of Swindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Stoddart of Swindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2016-01-19.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the statement made by the former Prime Minister, Tony Blair, advocating further EU integration, including the creation of an EU defence capability.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    The EU already has a range of capabilities to build and promote security, which can be complementary to those of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). The UK is working to make these more effective and to improve NATO/EU co-operation. But the Government has consistently made clear that we will oppose any measures which would undermine Member States’ competence for their own military forces or lead to competition and duplication with NATO. Complementarity with NATO is a principle that was reinforced by the European Councils on defence in June 2015 and December 2013.

  • Lord Stoddart of Swindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Lord Stoddart of Swindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2016-01-19.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the European Parliament’s report that 50 per cent of the EU £23 billion aid budget has been delayed or not used, and whether they plan to take steps to terminate the policy of delivering part of the UK overseas aid budget through the EU.

    Baroness Verma

    The report concerned was compiled by an individual Member of the European Parliament and was not an analysis representing the views of the European Parliament as a whole. It was based on a reading of reports by EU offices in non-EU countries, intended to identify potential problems at an early stage, so that things can be put right in time. In the event that it is proven that money has been wasted, we expect the EU and its audit institutions to take swift and decisive action to recoup funds and to carry out a thorough review of all its programmes to provide a clear set of actions to stop this happening again.

  • Lord Scriven – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Lord Scriven – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Scriven on 2016-01-19.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they have made to the Archbishop of Canterbury on the recent communiqué from Anglican Primates about homosexuality and same-sex marriage.

    Baroness Williams of Trafford

    The Government has made no representations to the Most Rev. and rt hon Archbishop of Canterbury, or the Anglican Community, regarding the recent communique from the Anglican Primates, issued on 15 January.

    The Government does not normally make comments in response to statements issued by the Church of England.

  • Lord Scriven – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Lord Scriven – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Scriven on 2016-01-19.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to set up a commission to look at the question of the disestablishment of the Church of England, in the light of the communiqué from Anglican Primates about homosexuality and same-sex marriage.

    Lord Bridges of Headley

    The Government has no plans to set up such a commission.

  • Lord Rogan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Rogan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Rogan on 2016-01-19.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the Democratic Progressive Party’s chairwoman, Tsai Ing-Wen, being elected President of Taiwan.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), set out in his Statement of 16 January that the Government congratulates the people of Taiwan on the conduct of their elections, and Dr Tsai Ing-wen and the Democratic Progressive Party for having won their support. Our policy on Taiwan has not changed.

  • Lord Lester of Herne Hill – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Lester of Herne Hill – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Lester of Herne Hill on 2016-01-19.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 11 January (HL4752 and HL4753) and 18 January (HL4957), whether they regard as matters of concern in countering extremist ideologies the preaching and teaching of Wahhabism in mosques and Muslim education bodies in Britain, and funding from overseas for that teaching.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    We consider any vocal or active opposition to our fundamental values as extremist, whatever guise these are expressed under. This includes when religions are hijacked by those wishing to promote extremism. As my rt. hon. Friend the Prime Minister said in July last year “extremist ideology is not true Islam”.

    Because of these concerns our Government has taken significant steps to counter extremism. We published our Counter Extremism Strategy in October 2015 which sets out a range of measures to deal with the broad challenge of extremism. We have placed a duty on specified authorities to have due regard to the need to prevent people from being radicalised. This includes schools, colleges and universities. It is also why the Prime Minister recently commissioned a review into the funding of extremism in the UK, including funding from overseas.

  • Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-01-19.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have any proposals for diverting a proportion of the EU’s external aid to assist member states in receiving and caring for the current increased numbers of refugees, and to job-creating investment in the Middle East and North Africa.

    Baroness Verma

    With pressure from the United Kingdom and other Member States, the European Union (EU) has mobilised considerable funding to support the international response to the refugee crisis – including within Europe, and to tackle the root causes of migration and displacement in the Middle East and North Africa.

    Within Europe, the UK is working to ensure that all tools are being used to support the humanitarian response to the refugee crisis, and that the donor effort is well coordinated through the Civil Protection Mechanism. Alongside this, the UK’s support for refugees and migrants during the Mediterranean migration crisis has reached nearly £55million. This money is focused on providing life-saving assistance and protection to vulnerable people rescued at sea or in transit.

    In the Middle East and the North Africa, the EU is a leading donor in the response to the Syria crisis with over €5 billion of total budget mobilised by the European Commission and Member States collectively in humanitarian, development, economic and stabilisation assistance. The UK has been at the forefront of this, pledging over £1.1 billion, our largest ever humanitarian response to a single crisis. In addition, the EU Trust Fund for Africa – a €1.8billion fund – will allocate money to projects in the Sahel, Horn and North Africa to tackle the root causes of migration.

  • Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-01-19.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the effectiveness of EU aid to developing countries.

    Baroness Verma

    The UK continues to work hard to ensure EU development aid focuses on the poorest and most fragile countries and that the EU becomes more open and transparent about the challenges it faces in implementing aid projects. The EU has taken important steps to improve gender equality; to communicate better what its aid programmes are achieving; and for its aid to be more closely linked to countries’ own development priorities and more in line with other EU policies including trade, investment and the environment.