We regularly make clear our concerns about the evictions of Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem to the Israeli authorities and the Municipality of Jerusalem, both bilaterally and in co-operation with like-minded diplomatic partners. The Fourth Geneva Convention, which applies to all occupied territories, including East Jerusalem, prohibits demolitions or forced evictions absent military necessity.

The UK Ambassador in Tel Aviv raised ongoing demolitions with the Israeli Authorities in a meeting alongside like-minded partners on 25 February 2021. The Minister of State for the Middle East and North Africa raised the issue of evictions of Palestinians from their homes, with the Israeli Ambassador to the UK on 29 October 2020, and the British Embassy in Tel Aviv raises this issue regularly with the Israeli authorities. UK officials from the British Consulate in Jerusalem have made regular visits to areas at risk of demolition and eviction to reiterate UK support for those communities. On 25 November 2020, the UK Consul General Jerusalem visited families at risk of eviction in Sheikh Jarrah, restating UK opposition to evictions of Palestinians from their homes.

The impact of the global pandemic on the UK economy has forced us to take the tough but necessary decision to temporarily reduce our aid budget. We are now working through the implications of these changes for individual programmes, including for the Volunteering for Development grant. No decisions have yet been made. We understand the need to communicate with VSO in a timely manner regarding this grant.

The UK Government is proud of the outstanding contribution of returned volunteers to their home communities in the UK, particularly during the UK's Covid-19 pandemic response.

Yemen remains one of the world's largest humanitarian crisis, with two thirds of the entire population, requiring some form of humanitarian assistance. The recent fighting during February and March has already displaced thousands of civilians, and many more are at risk. The UK is playing a leading role in responding to the crisis in Yemen by contributing over £1 billion to the humanitarian response and through our diplomatic influence.

The Government welcomes the focus of the US administration on Yemen. We are working closely with them, and newly appointed Special Envoy Lenderking in particular, to help make quick progress towards a nationwide ceasefire. The Minister of State for Middle East and North Africa spoke with UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths on 1 March to discuss how the UK can best support the UN-led peace process. Ministers and officials regularly engage with all our international partners including the US to ensure life-saving humanitarian aid reaches the millions of Yemenis in need.

The UK Government is deeply concerned by the conflict in North East Nigeria and the wider Lake Chad Basin, which continues to drive instability, acute food insecurity and malnutrition in the region. We support governments and organisations across the region to address these issues. The UK Government is a leading humanitarian donor and supports the United Nations and non-governmental organisations to provide assistance to people with humanitarian needs. We continue to raise concerns over the humanitarian situation in multilateral fora, most recently by me on 11 March in a food security event at the United Nations.

Conflict also remains the primary driver of displacement and irregular migration across the region, compounded by the effects of climate change, disease outbreaks and the impact of coronavirus. To address these combined challenges, the UK Government provides development and stabilisation assistance to improve civilians' access to healthcare and improve livelihoods. We will also continue to work with countries of the Lake Chad Basin to address climate change. These countries are invited to attend COP26 later this year.

The UK is facing the worst economic contraction in over 300 years, and a budget deficit of close to £400 billion. As announced last year, given the impact of this global pandemic on the economy and, as a result, the public finances, we will move to a target of spending 0.5% of Gross National Income as Official Development Assistance (ODA) in 2021.

On 1 March, the Minister of State for Middle East and North Africa announced that the UK will provide at least £87 million to Yemen over the course of our next financial year (2021/22), with the UK contributing over £1 billion since the conflict began. Our funding will feed an additional 240,000 of the most vulnerable Yemenis every month, support 400 healthcare clinics and provide clean water for 1.6 million people. We will also provide one-off cash support to 1.5 million of Yemen's poorest households to help them buy food and basic supplies.

We have no plans to proscribe the Houthis, but we keep the use of sanctions under review. We welcomed the US announcement to revoke the previous administration's designation of the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation. The UK had engaged closely with the US administration on this matter, sharing our concerns that designation would disrupt humanitarian operations in Yemen. However, we cannot ignore Houthi actions. We have condemned the Houthis' dangerous military escalation, including cross-border attacks on Saudi Arabia and their renewed offensive on Marib. In addition, the UN Security Council recently adopted a UK drafted resolution sanctioning Houthi official Sultan Zabin for the use of sexual violence as a tool of war. We must address the Houthi sense of impunity to make progress on the peace process.

The British Embassy Dubai sent a Note Verbale to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in August 2019 to clarify the terms of Mr Smith's continued detention. The FCDO Director of Consular Services also raised Mr Smith's detention in August 2019. We continue to speak with the local authorities regarding Mr Smith's welfare. Consular staff most recently spoke to the prison doctor on 28 January 2021.

Consular staff work incredibly hard and do all they can to assist people who ask for our help. We offer tailored support based on an assessment of a person's specific needs and circumstances.

The UK is committed to rapid, equitable access to safe and effective vaccines, and has committed £548 million to the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC) to ensure COVID-19 vaccine access for low- and middle-income countries. We do not consider waiving intellectual property (IP) rights to be an appropriate course of action in boosting the manufacturing of safe, effective, and quality vaccines. The existing intellectual property framework has mobilised research and development to deliver a host of new medicines and technologies to detect, treat, and defend against COVID-19.

According to the UN Global Humanitarian Overview, 235 million people will need humanitarian assistance and protection in 2021. Humanitarian needs are the largest on record, driven in large part by the direct and indirect consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. The UK is a major humanitarian donor, providing over £2 billion in assistance to humanitarian crises in the last financial year. The emergence of new COVID-19 variants serves as a powerful reminder that viruses mutate by their very nature. As a result, over 4000 SARS-CoV-2 variants have been identified across the globe. The UK's world-leading genomic sequencing continues to monitor these variants as they arise and develop, and we will offer this expertise to identify new variants to countries who do not have the resources to do so.

The UK remains concerned about the ongoing humanitarian situation in Gaza and the impact of COVID-19 on an already fragile healthcare system. We are pleased that the OPTs will be among the first to benefit from the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC) - the international initiative to support global equitable access to vaccines, with delivery of a first batch of more than 37,000 doses of the of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine anticipated in mid-February.

The UK was one of the first donors to provide funding to support the health and humanitarian response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the OPTs. We have provided £1.25m funding (WHO with £630,000 and UNICEF with £620,000) to purchase and co-ordinate delivery of medical equipment, treat critical care patients, train frontline health workers and scale up laboratory testing capacity - mainly in Gaza. The FCDO is currently running a prioritisation exercise across all its programmes, to ensure that every pound we spend goes as far as possible. The Foreign Secretary will communicate the outcome shortly.

The UK works closely with both Somalia and Kenya on matters of security and regional stability. The Secretary of State for Defence visited Kenya and Somalia from 25 to 27 January and urged both countries to focus on their many shared interests in these areas and work together to reduce border tensions.

In response to the reported recent clashes near the Kenya-Somalia border we have also encouraged regional institutions, including the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), to conduct independent fact-finding missions and promote conflict resolution measures. We have no basis on which to believe that UK-trained troops were involved. The UK provides training to Somali National Army units in Somalia's South West State, to support internal stability and counter Al-Shabaab, but not in the state of Jubaland where the clashes were reported.

The UK works closely with both Somalia and Kenya on matters of security and regional stability. The Secretary of State for Defence visited Kenya and Somalia from 25 to 27 January and urged both countries to focus on their many shared interests in these areas and work together to reduce border tensions.

In response to the reported recent clashes near the Kenya-Somalia border we have also encouraged regional institutions, including the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), to conduct independent fact-finding missions and promote conflict resolution measures. We have no basis on which to believe that UK-trained troops were involved. The UK provides training to Somali National Army units in Somalia's South West State, to support internal stability and counter Al-Shabaab, but not in the state of Jubaland where the clashes were reported.

The UK works closely with both Somalia and Kenya on matters of security and regional stability. The Secretary of State for Defence visited Kenya and Somalia from 25 to 27 January and urged both countries to focus on their many shared interests in these areas and work together to reduce border tensions.

In response to the reported recent clashes near the Kenya-Somalia border we have also encouraged regional institutions, including the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), to conduct independent fact-finding missions and promote conflict resolution measures. We have no basis on which to believe that UK-trained troops were involved. The UK provides training to Somali National Army units in Somalia's South West State, to support internal stability and counter Al-Shabaab, but not in the state of Jubaland where the clashes were reported.

We share the concerns raised by the UN and NGOs about the impact of designation on what is already the world's worst humanitarian crisis. We have already engaged with the US to urge them to ensure that the vital humanitarian response, including food supplies, is not disrupted and will raise this urgently with the new administration. Our priority is to support the UN's peace process and ensure lifesaving humanitarian aid can reach the millions of Yemenis in need.

We remain concerned about the capacity of the Palestinian health system to cope with the increasing number of COVID-19 cases, especially in Gaza. We welcome the recent 30% increase in hospital beds for patients suffering critical and severe cases and the recent procurement by World Health Organisation of two additional oxygen generators. The UK continues to monitor the situation closely.

The UK remains concerned about the ongoing humanitarian situation in Gaza and the impact of COVID-19 on an already fragile healthcare system. Recognising the severity of the situation, we were one of the first donors to provide funding to support the health and humanitarian response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. We have provided £1.25 million funding (the World Health Organisation with £630,000 and the United Nations Children's Fund with £620,000) to purchase and co-ordinate delivery of medical equipment, treat critical care patients, train frontline health workers and scale up laboratory testing capacity - mainly in Gaza.

The outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) has exacerbated the humanitarian and food insecurity situation. Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, food insecurity, driven by high poverty and unemployment, affected 1.6 million Palestinians - nearly a third of the population in OPTs.

We recognise the importance of tackling food insecurity. To support, we are providing £2.5 million to the World Food Programme to provide food and cash assistance to the most vulnerable Palestinians in West Bank and Gaza. We have also contributed £1 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency's Emergency Appeal in the OPTs which will help provide emergency food to over one million food-insecure refugees in Gaza.

We welcome the release of Gasser Abdel Razek, Karim Ennarah and Mohamed Basheer. The UK was clear from the outset that we had serious concerns about their arrest and detention, concerns shared by likeminded international partners. The Foreign Secretary raised the issue with his Egyptian counterpart on 19 November, the first Foreign Minister to do so. We continue to take a close interest in this case. We continue to have regular discussions with the Government of Egypt on human rights issues, raising concerns where we have them.

We welcome the release of Gasser Abdel Razek, Karim Ennarah and Mohamed Basheer. The UK was clear from the outset that we had serious concerns about their arrest and detention, concerns shared by likeminded international partners. The Foreign Secretary raised the issue with his Egyptian counterpart on 19 November, the first Foreign Minister to do so. We continue to take a close interest in this case. We continue to have regular discussions with the Government of Egypt on human rights issues, raising concerns where we have them.

The UK is a long-term supporter of UNRWA, and we recognise UNRWA's unique mandate from the UN General Assembly to protect and provide protection and core services to Palestinian refugees across the Middle East. We are providing £51m to UNRWA in 2020/2021. Reports that UNRWA may not be able to pay the salaries of its staff in full are very worrying. To that end, the UK is working with UNRWA and other donors to improve UNRWA's financial viability. This includes broadening UNRWA's donor base, and encouraging multi-year funding.

The UK will participate in the G20 Summit, which is likely to focus on health, the global economic recovery and wider global challenges (including climate change, trade and development). It is a key part of international planning for a sustainable recovery from coronavirus. As current G20 President, Saudi Arabia will play a vital role in coordinating the global health and economic response. We hope that the international platform provided by the G20 Presidency encourages continued progress on domestic reforms.

Our close relationship with Saudi Arabia allows us to raise our concerns about human rights, including on political detainees, in private and in public. We have expressed significant concerns about reports of continuing arrests and arbitrary detentions in Saudi Arabia. We raise concerns about individual cases regularly, using a range of Ministerial and diplomatic channels, including our Embassy in Riyadh. The UK signed a statement at the UN Human Rights Council on 15 September noting our human rights concerns in Saudi Arabia and calling for the release of all political detainees. We continue to raise concerns at all levels and are monitoring the situation closely.