Oral Answers to Questions

Mary Creagh Excerpts

Wednesday 18th March 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Swayne]

My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State announced up to £2 million of aid to Vanuatu, principally through UN agencies and our rapid response facility.

[Mary Creagh (Wakefield) (Lab)]

In 2012 Human Rights Watch documented the loss of jobs and violent forced evictions of the Anuak people from their ancestral lands in Ethiopia. The World Bank project linked to those abuses was funded by the Minister’s Department. What steps did he take in 2012 to investigate those allegations of human rights abuses?

[Mr Swayne]

My understanding is that the programme is designed to lift some 50 million people out of poverty by 2022. With regard to the seed provision, my understanding is that it is not compulsory to take it and that the legislation that has been put in place is standard.

[Mary Creagh]

The right hon. Gentleman’s Department decided to stop funding that World Bank project only in January this year, and it announced that decision only the day before the World Bank published the findings of its investigation into those issues. Why did he take three years to act, and what steps has he now taken to ensure that British aid truly supports better working conditions and jobs for the poorest, and is never again linked to human rights abuses?

[Mr Swayne]

By next year we will have spent £1.8 billion on promoting employment. We are shifting to economic generation and job creation. I fundamentally disagree with the hon. Lady’s approach.