Overseas Aid

Lord Barnett Excerpts

Wednesday 12th February 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Northover]

The ODA definition, as the noble Lord probably knows, is relatively wide. To seek to change that requires international agreement, and there are risks to that. That said, we fully recognise the contribution that the BBC World Service makes.

[Lord Barnett (Lab)]

My Lords, now that the Prime Minister has made crystal clear that money for flood victims is not a problem, can the noble Baroness confirm that her department is not considering transferring any money at all from her department’s funds to help in this instance?

[Baroness Northover]

Maybe I might answer by saying what we have done in Pakistan in terms of floods. The UK committed £134 million overall in aid for the 2010-11 Pakistan floods. The floods left 20 million people in need of serious assistance, including 2,000 dead; destroyed 1.7 million homes; and affected an area four times the size of Britain.

International Labour Organisation

Lord Barnett Excerpts

Tuesday 5th April 2011 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Verma]

No, my Lords, I cannot agree with the noble Lord. I have made it clear throughout my responses that we support raising labour standards in global supply chains. The number of fairtrade-certified producers has increased from 1.1 million to 2.5 million. That is an improvement. We are not going backwards, but we need to make sure that every penny we spend is spent well.

[Lord Barnett]

The Minister talks about spending money well. Will she tell us whether discretionary funding is still available to her department from the reserves available to the Treasury?

[Baroness Verma]

My Lords, I will have to write to the noble Lord.