Speeches by Harding.

“My question is: how does that stack up with what you are saying about the human rights chapter and how it is implicit in everything you do, if it is not within the GCC deal?”

“Mr Alexander, how satisfied are you with the UK’s overall approach to enforcing its economic security regime?”

“I am—excuse me. Coming back to the human rights chapter, can I draw your attention to the war in Sudan? That is the biggest humanitarian crisis since aid began, with 30 million people in food insecurity. I understand that the gold trade and weapons are both out of scope of the GCC trade agreement. About 90% of the illi…”

“The Iranian regime is utterly committed to destabilising the middle east and exporting terrorism globally, and under the auspices of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is focused on threatening our own citizens in the UK. The Minister mentioned the introduction of the new power of proscription to cover state threats…”

“May I invite the Secretary of State to congratulate Burhill primary school in Hersham, which I visited this morning? It has been re-awarded for excellence in wellbeing for the second year in a row for providing great mental health provision. My constituency is a large contributor to the Exchequer, but it is also one of…”

“Palestinian children have a right to education and to the chance of a decent future, as all children do. A total of 84 west bank schools are under threat from pending demolition orders. Will the Minister update us on steps being taken to support UNRWA and ensure education provision in the west bank? Israel’s actions in…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Turner. I thank the hon. Member for Glasgow North (Martin Rhodes) for securing this important debate. For the almost six decades that the west bank has been occupied by Israel, the UN Security Council has been calling for Israel to withdraw, but instead it has expanded…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for bringing attention to vehicles going into the water. In my constituency, the Thames provides our border with London, so it stretches along the entire constituency, and of course cars could go into the river. In areas like ours where rivers and open water are a daily part of life, it is essent…”

“I thank the hon. Member for Southampton Itchen (Darren Paffey) for securing this important debate today. As we have heard, every year in the UK, more than 200 lives are lost to accidental drowning. In fact, it claims more lives each year in the UK than house fires or cycling accidents. That must be a wake-up call. We h…”

“I had meant to speak to my amendment 120 today, but that intention was superseded by the Government’s movement on this, which I really welcome. It will close a loophole so that it will now be an offence to abuse an emergency worker on the grounds of race, religion or sexual orientation in somebody’s private dwelling. I…”

“Are there any significant outliers or any times when there have been significant outliers?”

“Thank you. Alex has answered these questions, so I am going to propose them to Mark. What would be your assessment of the FCDO’s current MEL processes across its programming?”

“Thank you, those are really illuminating examples. How does this compare with the situation before the merger, when it was DFID?”

“There was a report by ICAI in March 2024 which said that, as a result of the reduction of ODA from 0.7% to 0.5%, less programme budget was given over to MEL. That would suggest that there was a drop in MEL because there was a lack of programme budget, but you seem to say otherwise.”

“That is interesting.”

“Do you think that the new cut will have any impact on MEL?”

“Finally, how does the UK compare to other major donor countries in terms of MEL?”

“Brendan, in your opinion, do private contractors conform to the same standards of transparency as the rest of the development community?”

“Are the current levels of salaries, profits and dividends in the sector appropriate for an international development context?”

“Are there any significant outliers or any times when there have been significant outliers?”