Written Statements

Wednesday 21st April 2021 Written Statements

Wednesday 21 April 2021

Official Development Assistance Budget 2021-22

Wednesday 21st April 2021 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs and First Secretary of State (Dominic Raab)]

The FCDO has responsibility for delivering £8,115 million of official development assistance (ODA) spend this year, approximately 80% of total UK ODA. I have recently concluded the FCDO’s internal business planning process to allocate this budget for 2021-22 in accordance with UK strategic priorities against a challenging financial climate as a result of covid-19. This statement updates the House on the conclusions of that process.



Throughout the business planning process, we strived to ensure that every penny of the FCDO’s ODA spend brings maximum strategic coherence, impact and value for taxpayers’ money.



The resulting portfolio marks a strategic shift, putting our aid budget to work alongside our diplomatic network, our science and technology expertise and our economic partnerships in tackling global challenges. We will focus on core HMG priorities for poverty reduction, including getting more girls into school, providing urgent humanitarian support to those who need it most, and tackling global threats like climate change, covid-19 recovery and other international health priorities. Based on OECD data for 2020, the UK will be the third largest donor within the G7 as a percentage of GNI.



The integrated review has helped guide the process, by setting out how an independent and sovereign global Britain will act as a force for good and use its influence to shape the future international order. To deliver that vision I have allocated resources to the seven priorities I set out to Parliament on 26 November:



Climate and biodiversity. FCDO will maintain a strong climate and biodiversity portfolio of £534 million as we host COP26. In total, the FCDO will deliver more than £941 million of activities this year, across all themes, that count towards the UK’s flagship £11.6 billion international climate finance target.

Global health security. FCDO will spend £1,305 million on global health. We will focus on the UK’s position at the forefront of the international response to covid-19, through our commitments to COVAX, GAVI and WHO, and through bilateral spend where the need is greatest in Africa.

Girls’ education. FCDO will spend £400 million on girls’ education. We will invest directly in over 25 countries, helping to achieve the global target to get 40 million girls into education and demonstrating our commitment at this year’s Global Partnership for Education summit.

Humanitarian preparedness and response. FCDO will spend £906 million to maintain the UK’s role as a force for good at times of crisis, focusing our work on those countries most affected by risk of famine, including Yemen, Syria, Somalia, and South Sudan. A £30 million crisis reserve will enable us to respond rapidly to new crises.

Science and Technology. FCDO will make £251 million of R&D investments across all seven themes of this strategy, with £38 million targeted directly at science and technology including new innovations to tackle development challenges, including innovations in satellite imagery and AI to support humanitarian responses.

Open societies and conflict resolution. FCDO will spend £419 million to harness the UK’s unique strengths in conflict management and resolution, and to project our support for democratic values and institutions, human rights, and freedom of religious belief. We will further drive impact and support democratic values and institutions through our diplomacy, including our new sanctions policy, which will shortly be extended to cover corruption. We have also protected civil society programmes, particularly Comic Relief, Commonwealth Veterans, Jo Cox memorial grants within UK Aid Direct, UK Aid Match and VSO.

Economic development and trade. FCDO will spend £491 million to support new trade relationships with developing country partners, complementing our wider multilateral and capital investments to build the trade and investment partners of the future. We will use CDC and multilateral partners to drive mutually beneficial growth with strategic partners in circumstances where private sector investment is not practicable.



A further £3,159 million will meet the Government’s cross-cutting contributions to multilateral partners and global funds, including our pledge to remain the largest donor to IDA19, the African Development Fund, and other multilateral development banks; support arm’s length bodies such as the British Council; and cover FCDO operating costs. This is complemented by the ODA spent by other Government Departments, which I set out in a written ministerial statement on 26 January 2021.



Within this framework, I have also ensured that the UK is able to exert maximum influence as a force for good in Africa and strategically tilt towards the Indo-Pacific. FCDO will spend around half its bilateral ODA budget in Africa, where human suffering remains most acute, including a major shift to wast Africa to reflect the UK’s unique role and clear national strategic interest. One third of FCDO bilateral ODA will be spent in the Indo-Pacific and south Asia, in support of our deeper engagement in that region, promoting open societies, reinforcing trade links and promoting climate change collaboration.



In China, I have reduced FCDO’s ODA for programme delivery by 95% to £0.9 million—with additional ODA in this year only to meet the contractual exit costs of former programmes. The remaining £900,000 will fund programmes on open societies and human rights.



The UK remains a world leader in international development, not only through the impact of these financial allocations but also through the creation of the FCDO, integrating diplomacy and development to deliver greater impact. We will return to our commitment to spend 0.7% of gross national income on ODA when the fiscal situation allows.

Consumer Connected Product Cyber

Wednesday 21st April 2021 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (Matt Warman)]

This Government have ambitious plans to ensure that the increasingly diverse range of consumer products that can connect to the internet are more secure by having cyber-security designed into them by default.

Since 2018, the UK has been recognised by industry and the security research community as defining a world leading approach of strong cyber-security measures for connected products. My Department published a code of practice for Consumer Internet of Things (IoT) Security on 14 October 2018. Developed in collaboration with industry and cyber-security experts, this set out 13 outcome-led guidelines that manufacturers would need to implement in order to improve the cyber-security of their consumer IoT products. The UK Government have also contributed significantly to the first globally-applicable industry standard on consumer IoT Security—ETSI EN 303 645.

Our work has since been endorsed and supported by the ‘Five Eyes’—a collective statement of intent was published in 2019—as well as the Australian Government—their 2020 code of practice consists of the same 13 principles as those we published in 2018—the Governments of Singapore and Finland—whose national IoT labelling schemes reflects our work—and the Government of India—who published a draft code of practice advocating the same 13 guidelines of our 2018 code of practice.

The Government initially encouraged industry to resolve the issue of insecure consumer-connected products voluntarily. However, despite the publication of the code of practice and the development of industry standards, in many cases, poor security practices remain commonplace.

In May 2019, DCMS launched a consultation on regulatory proposals advocating a minimum baseline cyber-security requirement. There was widespread support for the UK Government seeking to regulate the security of consumer connected products. From July to September 2020, the Government ran a call for views on detailed proposals to regulate the cyber-security of these products, to ensure they are more secure for people to use.

I am pleased to inform the House that today we are publishing a Government response to this call for views. We summarise the feedback received in response to the call for views as well as set out the Government’s response to that feedback, and provide an overview of our updated policy intentions for regulation in this space.

In line with the intentions detailed in the document published today, we will introduce legislation as parliamentary time allows to protect consumers from insecure connected products. This regulation will apply to all consumer connected products such as smart speakers, smart televisions, connected doorbells, connected toys and smartphones, with some specific exemptions due to the specific circumstances of how certain devices are constructed, secured, and regulated, or the impact that regulating these products would have. The security requirements that will be mandated will align with the UK code of practice, and international standards, so are familiar to all manufacturers and other relevant parties across industry. The legislation will also provide powers to investigate allegations of non-compliance and to take steps to ensure compliance.

As a reserved matter, these proposed amendments will apply across the UK. The security of consumer smart products is a priority across the whole of the UK, and my officials will continue to work closely with the devolved Administrations on this policy.

[HCWS934]

State Pension Underpayments

Wednesday 21st April 2021 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Guy Opperman)]

I wish to update the House on the state pension correction activity that is addressing historical errors, that were unaddressed by successive Governments, following on from my statement on 4 March.

We are fully committed to ensuring that any historical errors are addressed as quickly as possible to ensure that individuals receive the state pension they are rightfully due in law. While I am pleased to report that good progress has been made in the examination of cases, this is a complex and resource intensive process requiring the clerical examination of many thousands of state pension records.

The Department already has a dedicated team of over 150 people working on the correction activity. Throughout 2021-22 we intend to increase significantly the capacity of the team with the recruitment of an additional 360 staff. We expect this additional resource will speed up the correction activity, with the aim to complete the exercise by the end of 2023.

However, it is important to note that estimates on the numbers affected, and costs, are currently based on highly complex scans of the computer system, analysis of DWP administrative data and very small samples of cases randomly selected and reviewed. They are highly uncertain and will be further refined by our analysts as the correction activity progresses and we are able to base estimates on management information gathered from cases actually reviewed and corrected.

Individuals who are in the affected groups do not need to contact the Department. We are in the process of issuing letters to all those found to be underpaid in accordance with the law, explaining how much they will be receiving in arrears and the reasons for the change to their state pension rate.

The Department will publish further information on the progress of the state pension correction activity around the time of the next fiscal event.

[HCWS933]