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

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-09-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what funds or other support they have provided in recent years for the organisation known as White Helmets in Syria; and what assessment they have made of its activities.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

The UK has provided support to Syria Civil Defence (also known as the White Helmets) through the cross-departmental Conflict Pool and its successor, the Conflict Stability and Security Fund. Our assistance has been delivered through trusted third party implementers. The total value of funds committed between June 2013 and the end of the last financial year (31 March 2016) was £19.7m. For financial year 2016/17, we have allocated a further £12.5m.

Our support to Syria Civil Defence is part of a coordinated international programme of assistance. It has helped to provide the Syrian-led organisation of over 2800 volunteers with much-needed training and equipment. To date they have saved more than 60,000 lives and were nominated for the Nobel peace prize in both 2015 and 2016 in recognition of their efforts to alleviate the suffering of the Syrian people.