Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether there are any requirements for civil servants to book a desk in advance in order to attend the office in person in each of (a) their Department's office workplaces and (b) the arm’s length bodies of their Department.
Answered by Catherine West - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Staff within the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) are not currently required to book or schedule attendance at the office, although individual teams may have their own arrangements to meet business needs.
The FCDO does not book desks for arm's length bodies. Desk booking services for these bodies are not centrally held and would come at a disproportionate cost to the department in producing this information.
Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much official development assistance was provided to countries that have a space agency with launch capabilities in the last financial year; and how much he plans to provide to those countries this financial year.
Answered by Anneliese Dodds
The UK's Official Development Assistance (ODA) spending is reported on a calendar year basis. In 2023, the UK's country specific bilateral ODA spend on India was £25.5m (focused mainly on tackling the climate crisis), on China was £7.2m (focused mainly on British Council spend), and on Iran was around £134,000 (focused on cultural exchange). We do not provide funding to the Governments of India, China or Iran. These countries have space agencies capable of launching and operating orbital satellites. The FCDO is reviewing its ODA spending plans for the financial year 2024/25 and will publish these in due course.
Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much official development assistance was provided to programmes aiming to ensure access to clean water in the last financial year; and how much he plans to provide to such programmes this financial year.
Answered by Anneliese Dodds
The UK oversees a portfolio of bilateral and multilateral development programmes that seek to improve access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). In 2022, the UK provided £124 million of Official Development Assistance (ODA) for programmes which help improve WASH access; this includes £45 million of bilateral ODA and £79 million of multilateral ODA. Official figures for 2023 will be published in Autumn 2024. These programmes include an £18.5 million WASH Systems for Health programme, which supports governments in developing countries to strengthen the systems that provide WASH services. This financial year we will continue to fund these programmes and work closely with our partners to ensure equitable access to WASH services.