Overseas Development Assistance

Lord Purvis of Tweed Excerpts

Wednesday 14th July 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Agnew of Oulton (Con)]

My Lords, I respectfully disagree with the noble Lord. We have not broken our own laws. As I pointed out in my supplementary answer to my noble friend, this is a suspension of the current percentage which is allowed under the original Act. We have committed through the debate yesterday that we will revert to the original Act’s commitment when the economy allows us to do so.

[Lord Purvis of Tweed (LD)]

My Lords, as the sponsor of the legislation through this House, I calmly say to the Minister that, when he refers to the spirit of the legislation, that spirit was based on a two decades-long consensus that we should not only meet our obligation to the world’s poorest but sustain it. We have enshrined it in a law that the Government are now moving away from, using executive authority. If the Government wish to bring forward changes, they should bring forward legislative changes and not simply Motions. My question to the Minister is very simple and he will have the answer because it is in his briefing pack, I am sure. If the new fiscal tests are linked to the pandemic, it follows that they would have been met when we did not have a pandemic. Under which calendar year in the past have those physical tests been met?

[Lord Agnew of Oulton (Con)]

Just to restate the point, Section 2 of the 2015 Act envisages circumstances in which the 0.7% target is not met due to

“economic circumstances and, in particular, any substantial change in gross national income”

and

“fiscal circumstances and, in particular, the likely impact of meeting the target on taxation, public spending and public borrowing”.

We last met those requirements in 2018-19.