Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what arrangements her Department has to reimburse the Ministry of Defence for resources used in disaster response.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
The Department for International Development holds a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Defence through which we request and receive military support. The understanding states that we will reimburse the Ministry of Defence from the aid budget for the additional costs incurred in providing that support.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department takes to ensure data gathering on the effects of its programmes is (a) accurate and (b) comprehensive.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
DFID is committed to ensuring we gather accurate and appropriate data in order to effectively monitor the impact of our programmes. We work with our implementing partners to ensure robust programme monitoring frameworks are in place. All DFID programmes are subject to Annual Reviews and Project Completion Reviews which assess and record how funds have been used; the results delivered (including assessing data quality); and reviews the criterions routinely used to monitor the programme’s activities. Risks or issues identified during the reviews are recorded, addressed and monitored. DFID also often uses monitoring agents, independent audits, and other additional safeguards.
Headline data on results for our programmes are aligned with the strategic objectives in the UK Aid Strategy and summarised by sector in DFID’s Single Departmental Plan (SDP). The SDP results are published every year in DFID Annual Report and Accounts and produced according to published methodologies.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps the Government takes to help share UK civil service expertise with developing nations.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
The Bilateral Development Review of 2016 and DFID’s Economic Development Strategy of 2017 have set out a strong and ambitious vision for the UK to develop a world-leading partnerships offer to share the best of the UK’s public sector skills and expertise.
Many UK civil service institutions already make their expertise available to developing countries. For example, HMRC has resident advisers working in several African countries, working with their counterparts to build their capacity to manage taxes and auditing. The Government Communications Service has partnerships with Tunisia, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Jordan to improve their government communications across a range of policy areas, with a focus on impartiality. The department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is supporting regulatory reforms in India, Indonesia, South Africa, Mexico and Brazil.
To boost our UK approach to partnerships, DFID’s GREAT for Partnership programme will support a range of peer-to-peer partnerships between UK institutions and their counterparts in developing countries over the next four years. This will aim to provide the technical and professional support that partner governments request, in line with UK priorities and values. The programme is currently at an early stage of implementation as we test the model, before we implement at scale.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of global steps to tackle human trafficking and sex slavery.
Answered by Alistair Burt
Tackling modern slavery, including sexual exploitation, is a cross-government priority. The Government is working to secure better international engagement and coordination to drive action on modern slavery globally as, with 40 million people in slavery worldwide, the response does not yet meet the scale of the challenge,
Our Prime Minister has taken a leading role in pushing for increased international action. In September 2017, she launched a Call to Action at the UN General Assembly to encourage countries to drive action to tackle modern slavery. 42 countries have now endorsed this important political statement of intent, and we will continue to push for more country endorsements and ensure that it delivers action on the ground. The Prime Minister also committed to double ODA spend on modern slavery to £150 million. Recently the Secretary of State for International Development announced £40 million of this funding, which will help over 500,000 vulnerable men, women and children.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to the Answer of 8 January 2018 to Question 120545, whether the Government provides funding for the salaries of teachers at (a) the Dalal Mughrabi Elementary School in Beit Awwa, near Hebron, (b) the Dalal Mughrabi Elementary School for Girls in Al-Shuyoukh, Hebron, (c) the Dalal Mughrabi High School for Girls in Al-Shuyoukh, Hebron or (d) the Dalal Mughrabi Elementary School for Boys and Girls, Jenin.
Answered by Alistair Burt
UK funding contributes to the salaries of individual vetted health and education Palestinian Authority (PA) public servants on the EU Palestinian-European Socio-Economic Management Assistance Mechanism (PEGASE) list, including PA teachers in the West Bank. It is the PA’s responsibility to deploy these vetted public servants to schools in the West Bank as they see fit. UK funding enables around 25,000 young Palestinians to receive an education annually. The UK government strongly condemns all forms of violence and hatred. Our partnership with the Palestinian Authority includes a commitment from the Palestinian leadership to adhere to the principle of non-violence and to tackle language and actions that could incite violence or hatred.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether any UK government aid is used to provides salaries for staff at any of the 31 Palestinian Authority schools which named after terrorists who have killed Israelis or at any of the three schools named after Nazi collaborators.
Answered by Alistair Burt
UK funding contributes to the salaries of individual vetted health and education Palestinian Authority (PA) public servants on the EU Palestinian-European Socio-Economic Management Assistance Mechanism (PEGASE) list, including PA teachers in the West Bank regardless of which school they are employed in. UK funding enables around 25,000 young Palestinians to receive an education annually.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what oversight (a) in general and (b) of the content taught the Government conducts of education programmes funded by UK Aid.
Answered by Alistair Burt
All programmes are monitored on a regular and ongoing basis by staff and external partners using a variety of tools to track progress against the results framework. This includes due diligence assessments, field visits, Annual Reviews, Project Completion Reviews, and delivery plans. Ministers are made aware of any programmes which are not on track to deliver the expected outputs and will discuss with teams whether they should be restructured or closed. DFID’s Internal Audit Department conducts periodic in-depth reviews of programmes, including visits to all country offices at least every two years.
Our network of education advisors regularly review the content which is taught in our education programmes. We also support a range of programmes which develop new educational materials to improve learning outcomes. For example, the resources of our Connecting Classrooms programme help young people to develop the knowledge, skills and values (e.g. critical thinking and tolerance) to live and work in a globalised economy.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she is taking to ensure that UK development assistance does not end up in the hands of terrorist groups or regimes that persecute LGBT people, religious minorities or minority ethnic groups.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The Department for International Development has robust measures in place to protect, prevent, and detect the diversion of aid. We have controls embedded through-out the programme cycle, from design through mobilisation, delivery and closure; this includes a rigorous due diligence process and a comprehensive risk management framework which requires risks to be identified prior to any disbursement of aid.
All organisations that receive funding from DFID are required to provide evidence about the use of funds, including audited financial statements which are examined as we monitor programme performance and delivery. All of our funding mechanisms allow DFID to terminate funding projects early if suppliers do not fulfil their obligations. DFID uses the UK Partnership Principles which are a set of 4 principles to assess partner governments. These include a commitment to respect human rights, and in particular the civil, social and cultural rights of poor or marginalised people.
We have a zero tolerance approach to aid diversion and this applies to all those within the delivery chain who are entrusted with UK aid. When aid diversion is identified DFID will always work to recover UK taxpayers’ money.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps his Department is taking to promote trade between the UK and least developed countries.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The UK is a proud advocate of supporting developing countries trade their way out of poverty. The Government has introduced the Taxation (Cross-Border Trade) Bill which will enable us to create a UK trade preference scheme to maintain existing tariff free access to the UK for Least Developed Countries as we leave the EU.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much UK aid has been provided to (a) Bougainville and (b) Papua New Guinea in each of the last three years.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
UK official development assistance to Papua New Guinea in calendar years 2012, 2013 and 2014 (the most recent years for which full data is available) was £1.3 million, £1million and £1.1 million respectively. Disaggregated data for funding specifically to Bougainville is not available.