Humanitarian Emergency Response Review
Debate between Andrew Mitchell and Philip Hollobone(13 years, 5 months ago)
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Mr Mitchell
The right hon. Gentleman makes a good point on which I sought to be absolutely clear in my opening remarks. Humanitarian relief must be needs-based, and must not take account of such extraneous factors. That is the commitment of the British Government —it has long been a commitment of Governments of all parties, and it continues just as strongly today.
Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)
Whenever disaster strikes, and in almost whatever form it takes, there always seems to be a shortage of helicopters. What can we do to improve international co-ordination to ensure a quicker and better helicopter lift capacity in emergency zones?
Mr Mitchell
My hon. Friend makes an extremely good point. He rightly identifies that problem as one of the critical pinch points, as it was particularly in Pakistan last summer. We are considering that and a number of similar issues, and I hope to have more to say in due course.
Aid Reviews
Debate between Andrew Mitchell and Philip Hollobone(13 years, 8 months ago)
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Mr Mitchell
CDC is not one of the organisations that has been assessed as part of the multilateral aid review, because we are in the process of reforming the way in which it operates. The point that we have made in a written statement to the House is that widespread consultation is taking place on how we inject more development genes into CDC. Those negotiations and discussions are continuing, and I hope to be able to say more to the House shortly about how that will proceed.
Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)
What proportion of the ongoing aid budget will be absorbed by India, and across the global programme what is the split between funding direct to Governments and funding to non-governmental organisations?
Mr Mitchell
My hon. Friend will be able to see that the figure for India is frozen at its current level for the next four years. If he looks at the results, which are available on the internet, he will see the different proportions of spending, but I can tell him that there will be less direct budget support under this Government’s programme than there was under the previous Government’s.