signatures and led to the first picket and strike in the Houses of Parliament and eventually to improved pay and conditions for the cleaners of Parliament. EDM 434 stated: That this House values the cleaners who maintain high standards of service to Parliament; believes the parliamentary cleaners should be treated with respect and that it is wrong that, despite the widespread concern over their pay and conditions of employment, their pay has only increased from the national minimum wage of £4.85 per hour to £5 per hour; is concerned that the parliamentary cleaners only enjoy 12 days' paid holiday and have no company sick pay or pension; believes the time has come to end this sorry state of affairs; and urges the parliamentary authorities to reach agreement with the two contractors on making available the necessary resources to ensure that cleaners earn the London living wage. Ministerial career (2007–2010) International Development Minister Malik's first and longest Ministerial role was as International Development Minister where his roles included: • Conflict, Humanitarian and Security Minister • All DFID Country Programmes globally apart from Sub-Saharan Africa • UK Civil Society (British Red Cross, Oxfam, Islamic Relief etc.) • Governor, Asian & Inter-American Development Banks • Chair Board of Governors Caribbean Development Bank • Asia, MENA, South America and Europe Development Minister • Aid Effectiveness Minister Malik was responsible for the UK's largest global aid programmes including in India, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh as well as the Middle East and North Africa, the rest of Asia, South America and Europe. He was also the UK's Aid Effectiveness Minister working to ensure that the impact of aid was maximised, and gave evidence to the Parliament's International Development Committee on the issue. In his role as the UK Minister responsible for Humanitarian Affairs, Conflict and Security Operations he had responsibility for overseeing the response to humanitarian emergencies both natural and man-made. For example, it covered disasters such as cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh cyclone Nargis in Burma; and the Pakistan earthquake, as well as man-made challenges, which meant supporting the work in Afghanistan, Iraq as well as for example UNRWA, UNDP, UNICEF, WHO etc. Some of the individual initiative's in countries were in partnership with other countries and were relatively sizeable for example he signed a £90m maternal and new born health programme in Pakistan which was designed to save the lives of an estimated 30,000 women