Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to ensure UK Official Development Assistance allocated to projects in the West Bank and Gaza is not facilitating terrorism in that region.
Answered by James Cleverly
DFID works through a limited number of partners in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and has robust controls against fraud and the diversion of aid. We select our partners for the strong safeguards they have in place, which reduces risk and ensures the maximum impact of UK aid for Palestinians. DFID’s funding agreements commit partners to understand and comply with UK and international counter terrorism legislation. Each programme also undergoes an audit of funds to assure that UK Aid was spent in line with agreed project activities.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what support her Department has provided for projects encouraging peaceful coexistence between Palestinians and Israelis in the last three years.
Answered by Alistair Burt
DFID has allocated £3 million for a three year (2017-2020) people-to-people programme which brings together Palestinians and Israelis to build support for a just and peaceful political solution. The programme will facilitate interaction between youth leaders, religious communities and strengthen co-operation in the health sector. DFID has not funded any other people-to-people programmes within the last 3 years.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what estimate she has made of the proportion of UK aid that is lost to corruption each year; and what steps her Department is taking to reduce the amount of such aid that is lost to corruption.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
DFID publishes all confirmed fraud on its external website (https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-international-development/about), where details of substantiated fraud losses, before and after recovery actions, are shown. DFID takes a robust approach to the recovery of UK taxpayers’ funds and has achieved high recovery rates over recent years.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
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 the processes in place to prevent the misuse of reconstruction material in Gaza.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The Materials Monitoring Unit (MMU) of the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism monitors the import, storage, supply and use of construction materials in Gaza to ensure they are used for their intended civilian purposes. DFID has provided £1.6 million of support to the MMU since October 2014. In 2016 DFID assessments found that the unit has performed well in operational delivery and effectiveness.