Asked by: Lord Bishop of Sheffield (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to address unsustainable international debt, as set out in the Labour Party Manifesto 2024.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Tackling unsustainable debt is one of the Government’s key international priorities. As a member of the Paris Club and G20, the UK is committed to providing debt treatments through the Paris Club and the G20 Common Framework, for countries that need it. The UK continues to work with our international partners to push for more timely, orderly and predictable restructurings.
We are also committed to tackling the underlying drivers of unsustainable debt, including through enhancing debt sustainability and transparency. The UK is a strong advocate of the G20 Operational Guidelines for Sustainable Financing – we have committed to adhering to these guidelines and call on other countries to do the same.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Sheffield (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the Official Development Assistance budget for 2025–26 is spent on development overseas rather than on in-donor refugee support expenses.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The UK has always reported ODA spending consistent with internationally agreed OECD Development Assistance Committee rules. This includes certain support for refugees arriving from developing countries. The Home Secretary is committed to ensuring that asylum costs fall and has already acted, taking measures to reduce the asylum backlog, reform the asylum accommodation system to end the use of expensive accommodation, and increase detention capacity to facilitate more asylum removals. We expect these decisions to drive down in-donor refugee costs, creating more space in the ODA budget to spend on our international development priorities overseas. On current forecasts, ODA spending outside of in-donor refugee costs in 2025 will be more than the £11.0bn spent in 2023.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Sheffield (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Baroness Penn on 6 July (HL Deb col 1304) giving the relative gross domestic product (GDP) per head for Wales and the UK, what is the relative GDP per head for each region of England.
Answered by Baroness Penn
The latest data published by the Office for National Statistics shows that in 2021, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per head, at current prices, was £25,665 for Wales, and £33,745 for the UK. The GDP per head for London (£59,855) and the South East (£36,174) was higher than the UK average. GDP per head in the North East (£24,575), the East Midlands (£27,505), the Yorkshire and the Humber (£27,692), the South West (£29,628), the North West (£29,681), and the East of England (£30,442), was lower than the UK average.