Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to help (a) sustain conservation efforts and (b) preserve biodiversity in conservation areas dependent upon tourism in developing countries in response to the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by James Duddridge
Tackling climate change and biodiversity loss remain a high priority for this Government. As we help developing countries tackle COVID-19 and its economic impact, we continue to pursue our environmental and climate change goals. The Government recognises that action on COVID-19 and on climate change and the environment are crucial to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, and that investing in nature can bring multiple benefits, such as building resilience, creating jobs, restoring ecosystems, improving health outcomes, as well as protecting biodiversity.
DFID has a number of programmes that tackle the underlying drivers and systems that contribute to environmental degradation, for example our significant support for sustainable forestry and land use. The UK is also a strong supporter of the Global Environment Facility, and we are working closely with them on a COVID-19 action plan.
DFID does not currently fund programmes that support ecotourism specifically.DFID officials are working with Defra counterparts to take forward the £100 million Biodiverse Landscape Fund announced by the Prime Minister, which may include support for ecotourism.
Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Egypt Country Programme in achieving its objectives for civil society.
Answered by James Cleverly - Home Secretary
The Department for International Development does not have a Country Programme in Egypt.
Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the UK Action Against Corruption Programme in Egypt.
Answered by James Cleverly - Home Secretary
The National Crime Agency, which delivers the UK Action Against Corruption Programme (UK ACT), makes independent decisions about which cases to work on. We are not aware that the programme has a significant case load in Egypt, although the programme did fund the Egypt Asset Recovery Task Force between 2013 and 2016.
DFID commissioned and published, in October 2019, an evaluation of the effectiveness of the programme, available at https://devtracker.dfid.gov.uk/projects/GB-1-201021/documents. This does not assess the effectiveness of the programme in Egypt.The evaluation concluded: “Overall evaluation evidence shows that the UK ACT Programme has made a contribution to reducing, to some extent, the incentives of corrupt individuals from developing countries to use the UK to launder money and reducing the incentives of UK companies and nationals to engage in bribery in developing countries”.
Since DFID starting funding the National Crime Agency and its predecessors in 2006, the programme has frozen, confiscated or returned almost £800 million of assets stolen from developing countries. DFID also publishes annual reviews of the progress of the programme, also available on DevTracker.
Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of (a) CDC and (b) other organisations' investment decisions.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
DFID undertakes a review every year of CDC’s performance against agreed objectives. These Annual Reviews are available via DFID’s online Development Tracker www.devtracker.dfid.gov.uk
In addition, in 2019, the Independent Commission on Aid Impact, carried out a major independent review of CDC’s investments in low income countries. Their report and DFID and CDC’s joint response are available on www.icai.independent.gov.uk/report/cdc
DFID similarly undertakes a review every year of the performance against objectives of each multilateral organisation that we provide funding to. These Annual Reviews are also available on www.devtracker.dfid.gov.uk.
We consider the capability and strategy of each organisation when deciding whether to provide funding that the organisation will then allocate and manage.
Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether representatives of CDC will be present at the UK-Africa Investment Summit.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
CDC assisted in planning for, and attended, the Summit. Graham Wrigley, CDC’s Chairman, also moderated one of the business panels.
Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential for devolved institutions to further their commitment to climate change action by creating a development finance institution similar to the CDC.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
DFID has made no assessment of the potential for devolved institutions to create their own development finance institution.
CDC is the UK’s development finance institution, wholly owned by the UK government. CDC’s mission is to support the growth of businesses in Africa and South Asia, to create jobs and make a lasting difference to people’s lives in some of the world’s poorest places. It does this work on behalf of the whole of the UK.
Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps he is taking to help support the decarbonisation of transport infrastructure in India.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
DFID is partnering with India to tackle climate change and transition to a clean growth pathway that will benefit us all, by providing advice and technical assistance. DFID’s Supporting Structural Reforms in the Indian Power Sector programme is working to improve the efficiency, reliability and sustainability of electricity supply in India, enabling a reduction in carbon emissions. Since 2015 DFID has invested in over 1GW of renewable energy projects in India – returns from these investments come back to the UK taxpayer. To date £55m has been returned.
The UK ended traditional aid to India in 2015 and no financial assistance is provided to the Government of India.
Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of the proposed UN migration pact; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Alistair Burt
Well-managed migration is in everyone’s interests. But uncontrolled migration erodes public confidence, damages economies, and places people on the move in situations of great vulnerability. The UK is taking significant steps to tackle uncontrolled migration both in our domestic policy work and in our ODA-funded programmes by:
Addressing the root causes of migration, through our targeted assistance for livelihoods, healthcare, education and economic development;
Tackling modern slavery and organised immigration crime;
Supporting enhanced border management;
Providing critical humanitarian support and protection for vulnerable migrants, as well as offering voluntary return and vital reintegration support to those wishing to return home; and
Supporting refugees to stay in a first safe country through our humanitarian and development work in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
The Global Compact for Migration is one way in which we are working to ensure that UK migration priorities are embedded throughout the international system. It is a step forward in international co-operation to tackle irregular migration and helpful framework to help us deliver our commitments under the Sustainable Development Goals.
The Compact is not legally binding. It creates a framework that will allow countries to work together to make migration more beneficial for everyone. It protects every State’s right to determine its own immigration policies, including in areas such as asylum, border controls and returns of illegal migrants.
I recently spoke to the APPGs on Migration and Refugees about the Migration Compact and attended the intergovernmental launch in Marrakech. We will issue a Written Ministerial Statement to update parliament.
Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what estimate her Department has made of the potential number of Acts or parts of Acts in the remit of her Department that will be subject to repeal as a result of provisions in the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill.
Answered by Rory Stewart
Government departments have been analysing the UK statute book and directly applicable EU law in their areas of responsibility to enable an assessment of the scale of the changes needed. This is likely to include the repeal, but also the amendment, of provisions in Acts but we are not in a position to give a sense of scale at this time.
In the Government White Paper on the Repeal Bill [‘Legislating for the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union’], published on 30 March 2017, we estimated around 800 - 1,000 EU-exit related Statutory Instruments will be required.
Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what action her Department is taking to help tackle the ebola epidemic in West Africa; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Baroness Featherstone
The current outbreak of Ebola poses a serious public health risk to West Africa and is deeply concerning. The UK is taking a leading role in working with the countries affected and with the international community to ensure that the outbreak is contained and help reaches those in need. In total, over £25 million of British funding is supporting the global effort to contain this disease. This includes £5 million of new direct funding to help partners working on the ground like the WHO, Red Cross and Médecins Sans Frontières to treat victims and prevent the spread of Ebola in West Africa. Over £20 million of UK support is helping contain Ebola through commitments to multilateral institutions (the World Bank and the African Development Bank) and the EU.