Aid Sector: Safeguarding

Emma Lewell-Buck Excerpts

Tuesday 20th February 2018 Commons Chamber

[Penny Mordaunt]

As I have said, I am reviewing all the partners we work with. If during the course of the investigation further things come to light that raise concerns about our ability to deliver aid in a particular location, I want to be sure that we have alternatives available, assessed and in place. We will have those answers after 26 February. I again assure the House that, whatever I do, no recipient of aid will suffer as a consequence.

[Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck (South Shields) (Lab)]

I thank the Secretary of State for her statement. How quickly will the perpetrators’ crimes be recorded with all the appropriate agencies here in the UK so that they cannot go on to commit these crimes again?

[Penny Mordaunt]

I am not sure whether the hon. Lady is referring to the Oxfam case. That case is obviously an issue for Haiti, but I have also made it a requirement that Oxfam reports those individuals to their own national Governments, and that has taken place. When these incidents arise, or if organisations receive serious allegations, they should report them to their donors and to their equivalent of the Charity Commission, but it is very clear that they must also report them to their prosecuting authorities.