Letters & Questions
To find out more information or to draw attention of the Government to a particular issue of importance to the APPG, the APPG Chairs and/or Officers may write to Government Ministers and ask either oral and written Parliamentary Questions. Some of these are now available below.
Ministerial responses to the APPG:
Response from Minister for Africa, James Duddridge MP regarding Mental Health and Covid 19 response (August 2020). This letter is in response to our letters from March and August seeking reassurance that the recent gains made in awareness of mental health for DFID programming will not be lost in the DFID and FCO merger and will be central in Covid 19 response programming. Read the original policy brief and reccomendations co-published by the APPG here.
Response from James Duddridge MP, Minister for Africa at FCO & DFID re Covid-19 in Africa (May 2020) in response to the APPG Letter to Secretary of State for International Development re Covid 19 in Africa (1st April 2020). The APPG asked for information on the level of DFID’s early support for responses to Covid 19 which prioritise community engagement and recognise the lessons in this regard from the Ebola outbreak as recommended in our Ebola inquiry report of 2016.
Currently awaiting Ministerial responses to:
Letter to the Minister for Africa from Chi Onwurah & Kate Osamor regarding #EndSARs (December 2020)
This letter follows the APPG hearing on the #EndSARs protests on 9th November with the Nigeria Leadership Initiative and the Parliamentary Debate on 24th November following the sanctions petition and asks the Minister to respond of further points.
Following on from the work of the APPG looking at post-brexit trade relations with African countries. This letter raises concerns over the proposed bilateral trade agreements with Kenya and Ghana which would undermine Africa’s regional integration, trade and value chains and potentially destroy livelihoods of those in supply chains for goods faced with new UK tariffs.
Letter to Minister for Asia at the FCO re persecution of Africans in China (28th April 2020)
Following reports of the growing persecution of African diaspora and the BAME community in China following the Covid 19 outbreak, our Chair has written to the Minister for Asia at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to ask what actions the UK Government is taking.
We have written again to the Immigration Minister following his appointment in December 2019 to ask again for the anticipated written Government response to our visas report of July 2019 and to meet with him to discuss developments and changes in policy since the launch of our report.
Following the launch of our report on Visa Problems for African Visitors to the UK, where former Immigration Minister Rt. Hon. Caroline Nokes MP committed her department to a written response and welcomed the report’s findings this letter asks for an official response to the findings and recommendations of the report.