Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Wednesday 8th July 2015 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

I believe that it does help. We know that people are moving to escape conflict as refugees, and to get jobs and a better future. Our work is upstream and is a long-term strategy, and our jobs agenda is providing jobs and better economic development to provide opportunities where people are. Our commitment to the Syrian crisis to date is £900 million, and as a result only 2% of the 11 million displaced Syrians have sought asylum in Europe.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

8. A recent report by the Independent Commission for Aid Impact—the Government aid watchdog—gave Ministers an amber-red rating for their interventions in security and justice, and stated that they were not yet making“a real difference to fragile and conflict states”.Getting this issue right is crucial to solving some of the underlying reasons behind the migration crisis. What more is the Secretary of State doing to ensure that DFID funding is spent wisely?

[Justine Greening]

The hon. Gentleman highlights a difficult area, and the issue of security and justice for a country such as Eritrea is one of the main drivers of people leaving that country. At the same time, our standards on human rights mean that we would not work with police forces, for example, if we thought that abuses were taking place while we were carrying out a programme. We try to strike the right balance and, as he mentions, tracking the results of that can be long term and not uncomplicated.