Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew Mitchell Excerpts

Wednesday 26th October 2011 Commons Chamber

[Richard Ottaway (Croydon South) (Con)]

2. What steps his Department is taking to meet the consequences for developing countries of a growing world population.

[The Secretary of State for International Development (Mr Andrew Mitchell)]

Britain is extending to at least 10 million more couples the availability of contraception, so that women can choose whether and when they have children. We are also boosting programmes in health and education with a particular focus on girls and women.

[Richard Ottaway]

The world’s population will go past 7 billion this week, with profound effect. We have millions living in poverty, shortages of food and water and inadequate health provision. Does the Secretary of State agree that one root cause of that is the unmet demand for contraception from some 200 million women living in sub-Saharan Africa?

[Mr Mitchell]

My hon. Friend, who knows a good deal about this matter, is absolutely right. Indeed, I have been reading a pamphlet that he published—within the past two days, I believe—entitled “Sex, Ideology and Religion”, which is a treatise on population. He refers to the 215 million women who want, but have no access to, contraception. The Government are directly seeking to tackle that, not least in respect of the extra 10 million women. That is a good start, but we will do more over the next four years.

[Ann McKechin (Glasgow North) (Lab)]

What steps is the Secretary of State taking to help women to enforce their legal rights to a minimum age for marriage, and to property and succession, which are clearly important to ensuring that women have a proper economic entitlement in their countries and to supporting planned families?

[Mr Mitchell]

The hon. Lady is right to mention early marriage, which we are seeking to tackle in particular. We have conducted a pilot study with the Nike Foundation, with which we work closely, on preventing early marriage in the Amhara part of Ethiopia. The results of that pilot are excellent, and I can assure her that we are including in all our programmes, as a fundamental pillar of our work with girls and women, the point that she accurately made about stopping early marriage.

[Malcolm Bruce (Gordon) (LD)]

The Secretary of State is right to stress the rights of women to choose when to have children and how many to have, but does he also agree that the evidence is that if we can promote sustainable development the necessity for large families diminishes and population pressures tend to reduce, and that that ought to be at the heart of the Government’s objectives in partnership with our development partners?

[Mr Mitchell]

My right hon. Friend is absolutely right. A classic example is the work that the Government are doing and the priority that we accord to getting girls into school. We know that girls who are educated get married later and have fewer children. That is a good example of what he is saying.

[Mr Speaker]

I call Mr Barry Sheerman. He is not here.

[Mr Douglas Carswell (Clacton) (Con)]

4. What assessment he has made of the effectiveness of budget support aid provided to Uganda.

[The Secretary of State for International Development (Mr Andrew Mitchell)]

There is a narrow role for general budget support in Uganda, but I am reducing its level by 80% over the next four years.

[Mr Carswell]

Is there not a danger that budget support paid to the Ugandan Government helps to make them accountable to British officials, when we should be trying to make them more accountable to their own people?

[Mr Mitchell]

My hon. Friend, who knows a good deal about Uganda, is correct to say that that is a danger, which is why the Government have made it clear that wherever we use general budget support, we will always ensure that up to 5% of the money is spent on enabling civil society to hold its own Government and Executive to account.

[Tony Cunningham (Workington) (Lab)]

What steps is the Secretary of State taking to provide support and aid to the 2 million people forced from their homes by the terrible conflict in Uganda?

[Mr Mitchell]

First, I welcome the hon. Gentleman to his new position. He has emerged from six and a half years in the Whips Office, so it is a relief for everyone to hear that he can still speak.

The hon. Gentleman rightly makes it clear that the importance of tackling conflict should be at the heart of development policy. Of all the 28 countries with which we have a bilateral programme, about three quarters are directly engaged in or have recently come out of conflict. That is an important aspect of everything that we do.

[Dr Daniel Poulter (Central Suffolk and North Ipswich) (Con)]

5. What steps his Department is taking to assist countries in the Caribbean to develop greener economies.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Secretary of State for International Development (Mr Andrew Mitchell)]

Our focus at the United Nations General Assembly was threefold: maintaining momentum on the girls and women agenda; driving forward the lessons of the Government’s humanitarian and emergency response review; and ensuring that people focus on achieving the millennium development goals by 2015. Progress is being made in each area.

[Nick de Bois]

I thank the Minister for that answer. A year on from the Secretary-General’s Every Woman, Every Child initiative, launched at last year’s General Assembly, what progress is the UK making on the commitment to save the lives of 50,000 women and 250,000 newborns?

[Mr Mitchell]

I thank my hon. Friend for his comment. We now publish—in the bilateral aid review and the multilateral aid review—precisely who we will support to achieve those objectives and how we will do it. Over the coming years we will be able to demonstrate that we are going further than we set out in the bilateral aid review, and the results that we achieve in all these areas—particularly in saving lives and advancing contraception—point to extremely good progress.

[Mark Durkan (Foyle) (SDLP)]

What priority is the Secretary of State giving to improving food security and agricultural markets and, in particular, the role of women marginal farmers?

[Mr Mitchell]

This is a particular priority for the Government, not least in the horn of Africa, where we have seen severe food stress and food insecurity, especially in Somalia. It is also likely to be a focus next year, as we build on the progress being made through, for example, our work with the World Food Programme in Karamoja, where food insecurity and food aid are being replaced by progress and food security.

[Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) (Lab)]

8. What steps he is taking to support reconstruction in Somalia.

[The Secretary of State for International Development (Mr Andrew Mitchell)]

Reconstruction in much of Somalia remains difficult because of the ongoing conflict. My primary concern is to help to save the lives of the 750,000 people, mostly women and children, who are facing starvation and disease.

[Kevin Brennan]

Does the Secretary of State agree that the recent interception of two young men from Cardiff—one from my constituency, the other from that of my right hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff South and Penarth (Alun Michael)—shows that it is in our national interest to ensure that we are engaged in reconstruction in Somalia? Will he commit to sustaining the Government’s support for the response in Somalia through 2012, and urge our Disasters Emergency Committee partners and others to do the same?

[Mr Mitchell]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. The whole of our development budget is spent in Britain’s national interest, and a large chunk of it goes to support our own security and prosperity here at home. Somalia is one of the most dysfunctional countries in the world. It is a classic example of a failed state where, because we were unable to tackle the causes of deep poverty, we are now dealing with the symptoms of both poverty and deep insecurity.

[Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab)]

9. What steps his Department is taking to promote fair trade projects in developing countries.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Ronnie Campbell (Blyth Valley) (Lab)]

T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

[The Secretary of State for International Development (Mr Andrew Mitchell)]

We are supporting the national transitional council’s stabilisation work in Libya, which we have helped to plan since the beginning of the conflict. We are heavily engaged in helping to save lives in the horn of Africa, and we are boosting development in the Commonwealth ahead of discussions at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Australia later this week.

[Mr Campbell]

I understand that the Secretary of State will meet the President of Colombia in a few weeks’ time. Will he raise the issue of the assassinations and the killings? This year we have already seen 56 people killed for being human rights defenders. Will the right hon. Gentleman tell the President that the Arab spring might knock on his door one day?

[Mr Mitchell]

The hon. Gentleman is right to underline the importance of promoting human rights wherever we can. When I have discussions with the President of Colombia, I will certainly take on board the hon. Gentleman’s point. [Interruption.]

[Mr Speaker]

Order. There are far too many noisy private conversations taking place. The House will want to hear Mrs Helen Grant.

[Mrs Helen Grant (Maidstone and The Weald) (Con)]

T4. What action is the Secretary of State taking to tackle forced marriage and early marriage in the developing world?

[Mr Mitchell]

As I mentioned to the hon. Member for Glasgow North (Ann McKechin), we are supporting specific pilot studies to try to reduce the awful levels of early marriage, not least in Amhara in Ethiopia, where we have secured extraordinarily good results. This is a key pillar of the activity that we support in all our programmes.

[Mr Ivan Lewis (Bury South) (Lab)]

May I begin by paying tribute to the work of my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Camberwell and Peckham (Ms Harman), my predecessor in the role of Opposition spokesperson on International Development? I can tell the Secretary of State that we will continue to support the Government where we agree on the 0.7% commitment and the importance of demonstrating aid effectiveness, but we will also challenge them where we think they are wrong.

What measures will the UK propose at next week’s G20 summit to ensure that there is a renewed push by the world’s leaders to achieve the millennium development goals? More specifically, now that the Department for International Development has launched its nutrition strategy, will the UK use the summit to urge other G20 members to endorse the Scale up Nutrition movement?

[Mr Mitchell]

May I first welcome the hon. Gentleman to his new position? I look forward to working with him as appropriate. He is quite right to identify the G20 summit next week as a key point where we can boost the interests of the developing world. He specifically mentioned nutrition, which is clearly very important, but the whole agenda for economic growth, which the G20 will address, is one that we should all support.

[Mr Peter Bone (Wellingborough) (Con)]

T5. We are exceptionally lucky to have a Secretary of State who is so passionate about relieving poverty in developing countries—but does he agree that what we want is not more and more taxpayers’ money going in aid, but more and more trade? What can he do to open the European Union’s markets to developing countries?

[Mr Mitchell]

I think that I thank my hon. Friend for his first remark. He is right to point out that aid is a means to an end and not an end in itself. That is why the coalition Government have specifically said that wealth creation, entrepreneurialism, enterprise and economic growth should be right at the top of this agenda.

[Mr Michael McCann (East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow) (Lab)]

T2. Later this week the International Development Committee releases its report on the Government’s decision to withdraw bilateral aid from Burundi. Although I cannot comment on the report’s content, the evidence offered by DFID to the Select Committee to support that decision was heavily redacted. Will the Secretary of State explain how the decision to redact squares with the UK aid transparency guarantee?

[Mr Mitchell]

As I explained to the hon. Gentleman in the Select Committee, we release as much information as we possibly can in my Department, and we publish all expenditure above £500. I know that the Committee is concerned about the closure of the Burundi programme, but Britain is doing a huge amount for the country through its multilateral agenda. There are many other ways apart from having a country-to-country footprint to support development in Burundi, and we must make tough decisions in the interests of the British taxpayer as well.

[Andrea Leadsom (South Northamptonshire) (Con)]

T7. What consideration has my right hon. Friend given to issuing food vouchers rather than food aid in order to promote free enterprise and choice in the developing world?

[Mr Mitchell]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. This agenda has been championed effectively, not least by Save the Children, and it is one reason why we prioritise social protection rather than food aid. The aim of all these policies is to try to get people off food aid into much greater food security—as seen, for example, in the project between Britain and the World Food Programme, which I talked about earlier.

[Chris Evans (Islwyn) (Lab/Co-op)]

T3. In the past decade 4 million people have died in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and countless women and girls have been victims of sexual violence. What are the Government doing to ensure that political parties in the DRC refrain from violence during the forthcoming elections?

[Mr Mitchell]

The hon. Gentleman is right to draw attention to the importance of focusing on the DRC, because there will never be a peaceful Africa without a peaceful DRC. Britain is giving strong support to the democratic process. We have been responsible for the registering of nearly 30 million people in the run-up to the November elections, and we strongly support the United Nations force in the DRC—MONUSCO—which has a chapter VII mandate and is therefore able to protect citizens robustly, especially the women to whom the hon. Gentleman has referred.

[John Glen (Salisbury) (Con)]

T9. What evidence can the Secretary of State give that our Government’s global leadership in increasing aid spending is encouraging other nations to adopt similar increases?

[Mr Mitchell]

Over the last year there has been an increase in many countries’ support for development, which is quite right and in accordance with the commitments that they have given. Britain has been in the lead in that regard. All our spending is in our national interest, and large amounts of it support our security, and indeed our future prosperity.

The Prime Minister was asked—