Speeches by Dodds.

“We have been seeking to amplify the voices of charities in this area. I have met them myself, and I have been particularly keen to ensure that I have heard directly from those operating in Sudan and those running the emergency response rooms. Those incredibly brave individuals, who are neutral in relation to the differ…”

“I am very grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his kind remarks. I have to say that I am so pleased to see that we have very strong cross-party concern on this issue and a determination to really make a difference for those suffering so much in Sudan and beyond its borders as refugees. He is right to point out that, shou…”

“I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for raising that issue. The UK Government have raised it at an official level. It is incredibly important that the future process includes different religious and ethnic groups and women. That point has definitely been made. The voices of Syrians who have been through so much must be…”

“It is a real pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Betts. I am very grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Norwich North (Alice Macdonald) for securing this incredibly important debate on the impact of conflict on women and girls. I was grateful to my hon. Friend for her very powerful speech, and we have heard…”

“Oh, she has come back—excellent. She was right to raise that matter. This has been a challenging afternoon for many because we have also had a debate on violence against women and girls in the Chamber, so I know that many have been shuttling between the two. I will briefly also mention that, during the 16 days of activ…”

“I will try to answer this quickly, before I start coughing again. Sorry, I have a bit of a frog in my throat. I know the Committee is really concerned about this area and particularly that the UK is doing all that we can so that the alarm is sounded where necessary—[Interruption.] That is a priority for us as well and …”

“We must see a change in position, ultimately. We have to see that change. We have to see a change around removing support for UNRWA. We have to see a change around the impediments to aid access. That is consistent with the Government’s position that there must be a ceasefire, the release of all hostages and the surge o…”

“We will certainly examine that very carefully indeed. We will certainly look very closely at that determination.”

“I will try to answer this quickly, before I start coughing again. Sorry, I have a bit of a frog in my throat. I know the Committee is really concerned about this area and particularly that the UK is doing all that we can so that the alarm is sounded where necessary—[Interruption.] That is a priority for us as well and …”

“You can push me. You will not get one, but that is not because we are not working at pace and really hard on this. We have been liaising really intensively with our DEFRA colleagues on this. They want to move forward on this as quickly as possible. I know that it is a real priority, certainly for this Government, but i…”

“We must see a change in position, ultimately. We have to see that change. We have to see a change around removing support for UNRWA. We have to see a change around the impediments to aid access. That is consistent with the Government’s position that there must be a ceasefire, the release of all hostages and the surge o…”

“Yes, I agree with that. It is critically important in those circumstances to speak very openly and honestly. As I said, that means acknowledging where we need to make changes in our own country. That has also been the case with racial equality and, indeed, LGBT+ equality, where we are seeking to make changes as well. W…”

“I would love to attend the conference in person. I do not think we have sorted out our exact arrangements around it, but we are certainly preparing for that Paris conference right now. I have had preliminary discussions around it and the work that we will need to undertake with partners. You and other committee members…”

“Thank you so much for that question. Minouche Shafik has been focused on issues that I know have been of considerable concern to the Committee around capability and capacity, really making sure that we are doing all that we can to restore our development reputation, as I mentioned. She has been working at pace on that.…”

“We have more than just me, of course. We also have Bridget Phillipson. We have Seema Malhotra working on racial equality and Nia Griffith working on LGBT+ people. We have a number of Ministers who are focused on these issues, and rightly so, on equalities matters. They are embedded within our missions for Government. T…”

“Yes, six months.”

“I have been having discussions with Baroness Shafik throughout the whole process, so obviously I have seen a considerable amount of material from her already. I hope that we would be able to both have that private discussion that was mentioned before and share how we are going to take this forward with the Committee as…”

“I will be delighted to set them out in just one moment. If you will permit me, Chair, I just want to say, first of all, what a huge privilege it is for me to be in front of you. I really mean that. Doing this job is a dream come true for me. It really has been such a privilege, so I am very excited to be having this se…”

“That is such an important question and one that I have been thinking about really deeply. We need to take the right decisions for the medium term, but for the long term as well. That does mean making sure that we get that balance right. For example, it is very important that when it comes to multilateral funding, we en…”

“As you probably heard in the previous session that you had with officials, because of the decisions that have been taken by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury in discussion with us, at year-end Darren was able to say—subject to the agreement of Parliament, as with any such financial measure—that the FCDO will receive …”