Oral Answers to Questions

Paul Blomfield Excerpts

Wednesday 12th January 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr O'Brien]

My hon. Friend makes an excellent point, and I can certainly assure him that the way in which work will be implemented to achieve access to clean water and better sanitation is central to the programmes developed under the bilateral and multilateral aid reviews, and will be announced in the relatively near future.

[Paul Blomfield (Sheffield Central) (Lab)]

6. If he will bring forward legislative proposals to make binding the 0.7% target for official development assistance as a proportion of gross national income.

[The Secretary of State for International Development (Mr Andrew Mitchell)]

The Government are fully committed to meeting the United Nations target of spending 0.7% of national income on aid from 2013, and will enshrine this commitment in law.

[Paul Blomfield]

I thank the Secretary of State for his reply, but may I ask him whether he intends to change the definition of what the UK reports as official development assistance, and specifically whether the Government intend to include expenditure on overseas students and refugees within that 0.7% target?

[Mr Mitchell]

The Government’s position is absolutely clear. Aid is defined by the OECD development assistance committee, and those rules are very clear indeed and strictly laid down. The Government have made it clear, as previous Governments have done, that our aid spending will be defined in that way, and only in that way.