Pauline Latham

The Business Interruption loan schemes are delivered by the British Business Bank through accredited lenders. Individual lending decisions are at the discretion of these lenders. The accreditation agreement makes clear that the interest rate at which the?lender is prepared to lend at, and any associated fees, should be based on a?lender’s normal pricing framework.

For the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) and the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS), the Government pays the interest and any lender-levied fees in the first 12 months. For BBLS the interest rate is set at 2.5% per annum.

The Government is already collaborating through regionally-focused private equity firms which are benefiting from funding from the government-backed British Business Bank (BBB) programmes such as the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund, Midlands Engine Investment Fund and Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Investment Fund. As of June 2020, the BBB’s dedicated regional funds support more than £240m worth of finance.

In order to support its regional activities further, BBB launched the £100m Regional Angels programme in 2018 – which is designed to help reduce regional imbalances in access to early stage equity finance for smaller businesses across all regions; and the UK Network – which engages with business finance stakeholders in each of the English regions and Devolved Nations, to increase small businesses’ awareness and understanding of the finance options best suited to their needs. The Future Fund is also open to companies from all regions and from all backgrounds.

We are considering a range of options that look at enhancing both new and existing levers to increase the supply of equity finance, particularly in regions, as part of the 2020 Comprehensive Spending Review discussions in order to support local businesses to expand as the economy reopens.

Event Duration Monitors (EDM) record the number of times there has been a discharge of storm sewage and for how long each discharge was for. The Water Companies send in an annual summary which gives the total number of discharges per year and the total duration per year for each site where it is a permit requirement. The 2020 data is not yet available as it is submitted at the end of February.

Event Duration Monitors started being installed in 2016 and have been progressively installed across Combined Sewer Overflows, Sewage Pumping Stations and Sewage Treatment Works. Not all sites require EDM monitoring, this depends on the sensitivity of where the discharge is made.

Direct storm sewage discharges to the River Derwent, Derbyshire (Source to confluence with River Trent)

The discharge from these water company assets (in this case Severn Trent Water Ltd) is only permitted to occur when there is elevated flow in the combined (sewage and surface water) sewerage network due to rainfall/snowmelt. The discharge is known as storm sewage and the impact on water quality is reduced due to the increased dilution both within the sewer and the receiving watercourse.

In January 2021 the Storm Overflows Taskforce announced plans by the water companies to accelerate work to install monitoring devices on all storm overflows by 2023. The Environment Agency is working with all water companies to increase the transparency of EDM data by 2022. This will provide readily accessible data in a consistent format, which will give greater visibility and increase responsibility of water companies to go faster and further in reducing harm from storm overflow discharges.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has issued reminders for healthcare professionals that fluoroquinolones should not be used in conditions that are not serious or improve on their own and that they should only be used for acute episodes of chronic bronchitis and uncomplicated cystitis if other antibiotics cannot be used.

This also includes stronger warnings about the potential side effects of fluoroquinolones in the product information for healthcare professionals and for patients and mandating pharmaceutical companies to issue letters to healthcare professionals on the new restrictions and stronger warnings about these serious risks, including signs and symptoms which can appear.

The MHRA is working with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and the British National Formulary to promote appropriate use of fluoroquinolones and ensure that the restrictions are aligned with United Kingdom national guidance on the antibiotic treatment of infections.

T-cell Lymphomas are recognised as a rare form of cancer that require pan regional arrangements for referral and treatment. Cancer Alliances have pathways in place to support diagnosis as part of their skin cancer pathways. NHS England and NHS Improvement are continuing to work with providers of specialised services to deliver best-quality evidence-based care and treatment for patients living with rare cancers.

The NHS Long Term Plan committed the Government to reviewing the commissioning arrangements for a range of services including sexual and reproductive health, to ensure that they can deliver the best outcomes for the people who need them. The Department confirmed in 2019 that local authorities will continue to be responsible for commissioning sexual and reproductive health services, but that they must work much more closely with the National Health Service to deliver joined-up care for patients and to embed prevention into the full range of health and other public services.

The Department are currently considering a range of options for where Public Health England’s wider public heath functions, including supporting the commissioning and delivery of sexual and reproductive health services, could sit in the future as part of the reform to the public health system. We will be engaging in more detail on these issues and setting out next steps on the reform programme over the coming months.

The Government has mandated local authorities in England to commission comprehensive open access sexual health services, including the provision of free contraception. Contraception is also widely available free of charge through general practice. The Government provides funding to local authorities for their public health responsibilities, including sexual health services, through the public health grant. It is for individual local authorities to decide their spending priorities based on an assessment of local need, including the need for sexual health services taking account of their statutory duties.

The Department secured a Spending Round settlement in 2019 for local government, with the public health grant receiving a welcome increase in real terms in 2020/21. Decisions on future funding will be a matter for the Spending Review.

No specific assessment has been made of the impact of the public health grant on access to contraception.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Sexual and Reproductive Health’s report, ‘Women's Lives, Women's Rights: Strengthening Access to Contraception Beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic’, has raised a number of important issues. The recommendations in the report will be considered as part of our upcoming work to develop the sexual and reproductive health strategy.

The Government has mandated local authorities in England to commission comprehensive open access sexual health services, including the provision of free contraception. Contraception is also widely available free of charge through general practice. The Government provides funding to local authorities for their public health responsibilities, including sexual health services, through the public health grant. It is for individual local authorities to decide their spending priorities based on an assessment of local need, including the need for sexual health services taking account of their statutory duties.

The Department secured a Spending Round settlement in 2019 for local government, with the public health grant receiving a welcome increase in real terms in 2020/21. Decisions on future funding will be a matter for the Spending Review.

No specific assessment has been made of the impact of the public health grant on access to contraception.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Sexual and Reproductive Health’s report, ‘Women's Lives, Women's Rights: Strengthening Access to Contraception Beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic’, has raised a number of important issues. The recommendations in the report will be considered as part of our upcoming work to develop the sexual and reproductive health strategy.

The Government has mandated local authorities in England to commission comprehensive open access sexual health services, including the provision of free contraception. Contraception is also widely available free of charge through general practice. The Government provides funding to local authorities for their public health responsibilities, including sexual health services, through the public health grant. It is for individual local authorities to decide their spending priorities based on an assessment of local need, including the need for sexual health services taking account of their statutory duties.

The Department secured a Spending Round settlement in 2019 for local government, with the public health grant receiving a welcome increase in real terms in 2020/21. Decisions on future funding will be a matter for the Spending Review.

No specific assessment has been made of the impact of the public health grant on access to contraception.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Sexual and Reproductive Health’s report, ‘Women's Lives, Women's Rights: Strengthening Access to Contraception Beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic’, has raised a number of important issues. The recommendations in the report will be considered as part of our upcoming work to develop the sexual and reproductive health strategy.

Local National Health Service trusts interested in securing serology or antibody tests are responsible for procuring those tests and deciding on the type of test kits. The Medicines and Health products Regulatory Agency is the national regulator for medical tests and any test can legally be marketed and deployed in the United Kingdom once it receives a CE mark.

The Government’s antibody testing programme continues to evolve in line with emerging needs, including to support ongoing research and surveillance studies.

We recognise that accurate and rapid assessment of suspected acute aortic dissection is crucial. Computerised tomography plays a central role in the diagnosis to allow expedited management and all acute hospitals with emergency departments have the capacity to make the diagnosis.

NHS England and NHS Improvement are aware of the findings of the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch’s recent investigation into delayed recognition of acute Aortic Dissection, and these recommendations have been included in the actions being taken forward with hospitals.

NHS England and NHS Improvement Specialised Commissioning is progressing the Thoracic Aortic Dissection service specification and have identified resource to support this as one of the priorities within the Specialised Vascular Clinical Group work programme.

It should also be noted that the NHS England and NHS Improvement’s Getting It Right First Time Cardiothoracic Review recommended that acute aortic syndrome patients are only operated on by rotas of acute aortic syndrome specialist teams. This is being actioned across cardiac and vascular teams. The NHS England and NHS Improvement Specialised Cardiac Improvement Programme has developed a guide and toolkit to support implementation with the first Region rolling out from April 2020.

The seismic impact of the pandemic on the UK economy has forced us to take tough but necessary decisions, including temporarily reducing the overall amount we spend on aid, and exiting from some programmes, including the Accelerating the Sustainable Control and Elimination of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) programme. We will still spend more than £10 billion this year to fight poverty, tackle climate change, and improve global health, which remains a top priority for UK ODA. We will focus on the UK's position at the forefront of the international response to COVID-19 through our commitments to COVAX, Gavi, and WHO, and through bilateral spend where the need is greatest in Africa. Where we have taken the decision to exit programmes, this will be done in a measured way, working closely with our delivery partners.

The UK has made a significant contribution to global efforts towards protecting hundreds of millions of people from NTDs. Malaria is not classified as an NTD by the World Health Organisation. We remain committed to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.

The seismic impact of the pandemic on the UK economy has forced us to take tough but necessary decisions, including temporarily reducing the overall amount we spend on aid, and exiting from some programmes, including the Accelerating the Sustainable Control and Elimination of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) programme. We will still spend more than £10 billion this year to fight poverty, tackle climate change, and improve global health, which remains a top priority for UK ODA. We will focus on the UK's position at the forefront of the international response to COVID-19 through our commitments to COVAX, Gavi, and WHO, and through bilateral spend where the need is greatest in Africa. Where we have taken the decision to exit programmes, this will be done in a measured way, working closely with our delivery partners.

The UK has made a significant contribution to global efforts towards protecting hundreds of millions of people from NTDs. Malaria is not classified as an NTD by the World Health Organisation. We remain committed to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.

In January this year, the Foreign Secretary led a cross-government process to review, appraise and finalise Official Development Assistance (ODA) allocations across all geographies, to maximise the Government's strategic focus in the use of ODA next year. In completing this process, officials considered any impact on women and girls, the most marginalised and vulnerable, people with disabilities and people from other protected groups, when developing advice to Ministers.

Information on our programmes in India, including our implementing partners, is published online and can be viewed on devtracker.fcdo.gov.uk.

We stand side by side with India as a friend and partner during what is a deeply concerning time in the fight against COVID-19. The UK has been the first country to deliver life-saving medical support to India and continues to work closely with the Government of India to identify what support we can provide in the coming days, based on their most pressing needs.

As the Foreign Secretary set out in his Written Ministerial Statement on 21 April, we have prioritised our aid to be more strategic and remain a force for good across the world. Since 2015, the UK has given no aid money to the Government of India. The FCDO makes investments and deploys world-leading expertise in areas of mutual interest. Our work in India reduces poverty, tackles climate change and creates new partners and markets for the UK.

Following a thorough review, the FCDO's aid budget has been allocated in accordance with UK strategic priorities against a challenging financial climate of COVID. Throughout this process, we have strived to ensure that every penny of our aid brings maximum strategic coherence, impact and value for taxpayers' money. We are now working through what this means for individual programmes, in line with UK strategic priorities identified. We stand side by side with India as a friend and partner during what is a deeply concerning time in the fight against COVID-19. The UK is working closely with the Government of India to identify further assistance we can provide in the coming days, based on their most pressing needs.

As the Foreign Secretary set out in his Written Ministerial Statement on 21 April, we have prioritised our aid to be more strategic and remain a force for good across the world. Following a thorough review, the FCDO's aid budget has been allocated in accordance with UK strategic priorities against a challenging financial climate of COVID-19. Throughout this process, we have strived to ensure that every penny of our aid brings maximum strategic coherence, impact and value for taxpayers' money. We have cut FCDO aid programming to China by 95 per cent in 2021, focusing the remaining programme funding on specific programmes that support British values around open societies and human rights. We are now working through what this means for individual programmes, in line with UK strategic priorities identified.

All Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) official aid spend can be found in the Statistics on International Development UK Aid report at:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/statistics-on-international-development

The latest Muskoka2 donor estimates were published as part of the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual & Reproductive Rights in the Donor Delivering Report and cover 2016 to 2018. The report is available at: https://www.epfweb.org/node/90

A more detailed Muskoka2 donor estimates report covering 2002-2017 is available at: https://datacompass.lshtm.ac.uk/id/eprint/1526/

An updated Muskoka2 report is expected to be published on the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine datacompass website later this year. Musoka2 estimates are not available for 2019 onwards due to reporting timeframes of multilateral agencies and external data compilation.

We are committed to delivering an efficient and effective humanitarian system and the implementation of World Humanitarian Summit Grand Bargain commitments, including recognising national and local organisations and communities as first responders to crises. We have been one the largest donors to the UN Country-Based Pooled Funds, who channel a substantial proportion of their funding to local and national actors - 25% in 2019 - and support the Start Network, which facilitates action among local and national NGOs, as well as the Red Cross Movement. We continue innovative approaches to promote greater localisation, notably an £18 million fund launched in 2020 for UK NGOs responding to COVID-19 designed to encourage improved partnerships with local and national actors. The UK is at the forefront of discussions to develop a successor arrangement to the Grand Bargain beginning later this year, working with the UN, Red Cross and civil society.

The Foreign Secretary will lead on a new development strategy to ensure close alignment of UK aid and development aims with the objectives set out in the Integrated Review (IR). The Government has consulted widely on the IR and will be discussing the development strategy with partners and other stakeholders. The strategy will be published in due course.

Famine prevention is a priority theme of the UK's G7 Presidency. As part of this, the UK Special Envoy, Nick Dyer, is chairing a Panel on Famine Prevention and Humanitarian Crisis to agree a Compact to prevent famine in 2021 and slow the growth in humanitarian need through stronger approaches to early action. The Democratic Republic of Congo is one of the priority countries for the UK's Call to Action on famine and food insecurity.

Tackling severe food insecurity and malnutrition is one of the UK's top priorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Since 2017, UK aid has provided 1.97 million people with food aid, cash and vouchers to reduce food insecurity and treated over 300,000 cases of severe acute malnutrition.

The UK is also leading a global call to action on the risk of famine and appointed Nick Dyer as the UK's Special Envoy for Famine Prevention and Humanitarian Affairs. DRC is a priority country for food insecurity and the UK's Call to Action. During my visit to DRC in November 2020 and a subsequent call with President Tshisekedi in March 2021, I discussed with the Government the need to address insecurity and conflict in the East, one of the key drivers of the humanitarian crisis.

The seismic impact of the pandemic on the UK economy has forced us to take tough but necessary decisions, including temporarily reducing the overall amount we spend on aid to 0.5% of GNI. We will remain a world-leading ODA donor and still spend more than £10 billion this year to fight poverty, tackle climate change and improve global health. We are working through what this means for individual programmes. Decisions will be announced in due course.

The UK remains a committed development partner to the Democratic Republic of Congo, including on reducing child stunting. In the last year, we have supported 4 million children with community-based nutrition including counselling on exclusive breastfeeding, Vitamin A supplementation, and growing nutritious crops.

All FCDO official aid spend can be found in the Statistic for International Development: UK Aid report at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/statistics-on-international-development

a) The last published donor estimates based on Muskoka 1 cover 2002 to 2015 and can be found at: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(18)30276-6/fulltext#seccestitle10

b) The latest Muskoka 2 donors estimates were published as part of the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual & Reproductive Rights in the Donor Delivering Report and cover 2016 to 2018.

The report is available on: https://www.epfweb.org/node/90

Musoka 2 estimates are not available for 2019 onwards due to Multilateral agencies' reporting timeframes and external data compilation.

On November 26 the Foreign Secretary announced new measures to ensure every penny of the UK aid budget goes as far as possible and makes a world leading difference.

As well as focusing our aid on strategic priorities in countries where the UK's development, security and economic interests align, these measures included three ways to improve the quality of aid across government. To increase coherence, FCDO decided the final allocation of ODA to other departments, a process which the Foreign Secretary concluded in January 2021. Programmes were judged against their fit with the UK's strategic priorities, evidence of impact achieved, and whether they represent value for money. Finally, the Spending Review agreed to establish a new administrative cost framework to give departments greater flexibility to design the best projects, rather than outsourcing work to expensive consultants.

The Foreign Secretary has set out seven core priorities for the UK's aid budget in the overarching pursuit of poverty reduction: climate and biodiversity; Covid and global health security; girls' education; science and research; defending open societies and resolving conflict; humanitarian assistance; and promoting trade and economic growth. Aid will be allocated against these priorities while taking into account considerations of need, including levels of poverty, ability of countries to self-finance poverty reduction and the UK's comparative advantage, to ensure that every penny we spend on ODA goes as far as possible and has the greatest impact and delivers value for money.

FCDO has engaged partners about the budget changes announced in July 2020. Most of those changes have been implemented and affected aid delivery partners have been notified of our decision. FCDO is currently working through a process of prioritisation to align its development spending in 2021 with the new GNI target. No decisions have yet been taken on individual budget allocations.

The new approach to aid announced by the Foreign Secretary in November 2020 marks our commitment to promoting science, research and data, and a rigorous use of evidence in the design of our interventions. Programmes will be designed to strive for the best possible development outcomes and impact, recognising that development action often takes place in risky and difficult environments. We insist on the rigorous use of evidence and scrutiny in programme design.

At the time of the FCDO merger the Foreign Secretary committed to reinforce the role of the Independent Commission on Aid Impact (ICAI) to strengthen further transparency and accountability in the use of taxpayers' money. In December, FCDO completed a review of ICAI to strengthen its impact and provide practical, action-oriented recommendations to support Government in delivering UK aid.

Following the Presidential election results on 16 January 2021, I set out, in a statement, our significant concerns about the overall political climate surrounding the elections and have urged the Government of Uganda to meet its international human rights commitments. The treatment of opposition candidates and their supporters since the Ugandan elections is concerning and does not provide for an open political landscape for democracy to flourish. Following the unacceptable constraints placed on the opposition candidate, Robert Kyagulanyi, the British High Commission in Kampala pressed the Ugandan authorities to remove restrictions on his political freedoms prior to the lifting of his de facto house arrest on 25 January. The recent violence towards journalists on 17 February was unacceptable and we welcomed the commitment of the Chief of Defence Forces to investigate the matter and take appropriate action. Our High Commissioner continues to engage with political leaders across all parties to discuss these issues and push for democratic engagement and reform.

The UK Government supports programmes for civil society groups and organisations in Uganda that promote democracy, robust institutions, and transparent elections. We have worked with Uganda over a number of years, helping to strengthen institutions in Uganda to uphold democratic freedoms and advocate for the equal treatment of all Ugandans according to the terms of the Ugandan constitution and laws. As a long-standing partner to Uganda, the UK will continue to follow post-election developments closely, and engage with the Ugandan Government and Ugandans to advocate for democracy.

The internationally accepted method for estimating Maternal Newborn and Child Health spend is the Methodology for Calculating Baselines and Commitments: G8 Member Spending on Maternal, Newborn and Child Health.

This methodology was used to estimate UK Government spend on maternal mortality in the answer to Question 97554 published on 5 October. The UK government has spent an average of approximately £1 billion per year on Maternal Newborn and Child Health between 2013/14 - 2017/18, on a range of bilateral and multilateral programmes.

The full breakdown of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's (FCO) 2019 Official Development Assistance (ODA) spend is detailed at this link: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/921034/Data_Underlying_SID_2019.ods. By filtering by year, the FCO and sector code 91010, you can calculate that the FCO spent £306 million on frontline diplomatic activity in 2019.

The FCO's total ODA spend in 2019 was £679 million (page 14 of https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/927135/Statistics_on_International_Development_Final_UK_Aid_Spend_2019.pdf). Spend on frontline diplomatic activity was 45 per cent of the FCO's total 2019 ODA spend.

Data in the Statistics on International Development (SID) is captured and defined in line with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) Development Assistance Committee reporting directives. Aid-related frontline diplomacy is captured under the OECD administrative sector code 91010, and broken down by country in the SID from 2012. From 2016 to 2018, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office published this data by region, before reverting to publication by country again in 2019. Over the course of this period, the Government has both improved the way it records its ODA eligible administrative spend and made changes to the way we present and publish the SID data to improve transparency and compliance with national statistic publication requirements. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office is unable to collate the aid-related frontline diplomacy costs by country before 2012 or from 2016 to 2018 within the timescale provided without incurring disproportionate cost. The regional costs for 2012 to 2015 and for 2019 can be calculated using the published SID data.

As with all public expenditure, HM Treasury allocates Official Development Assistance funding to departments at each Spending Review. As announced on 21st October 2020, the Chancellor has decided to conduct a one-year Spending Review in order to prioritise the response to COVID-19, and our focus on supporting jobs. We expect this process to conclude in late November.

Statistics on International Development (SID) - which is a national statistic - provides an overview of official UK spend on international development, including a breakdown of types of spend. Frontline Diplomatic Activity is recorded as 'Administrative costs not included elsewhere' using Sector Purpose code 91010. The SID covering spending for 2019 and the accompanying data was published on GOV.UK on 24 September, and can be viewed through the following links:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/927135/Statistics_on_International_Development_Final_UK_Aid_Spend_2019.pdf

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/921034/Data_Underlying_SID_2019.ods

In light of the decision to move to a one-year Spending Review, we are considering the implications for the completion of the Integrated Review, and will provide an update in due course

The UK is committed to tackling malaria and this is linked to our manifesto commitment to end the preventable deaths of mothers, newborns and children. As the Spending Review process has not yet concluded, we are unable to comment in detail on specific future spending options. It remains in the UK's interest to use ODA to make the world healthier, safer and more prosperous and to continue to invest in strong health systems and reducing the global burden of malaria.

The Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) review of maternal health results in 2018 made five recommendations, including adopting a long-term approach to maternal health planning, linking strongly to health system strengthening work and increasing the focus on quality of care. We welcomed all recommendations and the 2020 follow up review acknowledged our swift progress, finding that the UK had 'enhanced its emphasis on the need for good quality, respectful care for women and their babies and increased focus on adolescents and poorer women within its new family planning programmes'. ICAI also recognised the UK Government's commitment to Ending the Preventable Deaths of Mothers, Newborns and Children by 2030 and to international advocacy for comprehensive sexual reproductive health and rights.

Using internationally accepted methods, we estimate that the UK Government has spent an average of approximately £1 billion per year on Maternal Newborn and Child Health between 2013/14 - 2017/18, on a range of bilateral and multilateral programmes. Maternal health remains a key priority throughout our health work, with recently announced investments including £600 million to the Reproductive Health Supplies programme to buy family planning supplies for millions more women and girls in the world's poorest countries each year.

The UK commitment to ending preventable deaths has created further momentum to ensure the right balance in the FCDO portfolio across family planning, health services and other essential interventions for maternal and newborn health and wellbeing. This holistic approach is essential if we are to maximise the impact of our money and policy, and more important than ever before given the challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic is creating for health services across the world. In responding to the ICAI recommendations, we are reviewing our approach to maternal health results to include more context based country data and to increase our focus on long-term, sustainable change.

The Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) review of maternal health results in 2018 made five recommendations, including adopting a long-term approach to maternal health planning, linking strongly to health system strengthening work and increasing the focus on quality of care. We welcomed all recommendations and the 2020 follow up review acknowledged our swift progress, finding that the UK had 'enhanced its emphasis on the need for good quality, respectful care for women and their babies and increased focus on adolescents and poorer women within its new family planning programmes'. ICAI also recognised the UK Government's commitment to Ending the Preventable Deaths of Mothers, Newborns and Children by 2030 and to international advocacy for comprehensive sexual reproductive health and rights.

Using internationally accepted methods, we estimate that the UK Government has spent an average of approximately £1 billion per year on Maternal Newborn and Child Health between 2013/14 - 2017/18, on a range of bilateral and multilateral programmes. Maternal health remains a key priority throughout our health work, with recently announced investments including £600 million to the Reproductive Health Supplies programme to buy family planning supplies for millions more women and girls in the world's poorest countries each year.

The UK commitment to ending preventable deaths has created further momentum to ensure the right balance in the FCDO portfolio across family planning, health services and other essential interventions for maternal and newborn health and wellbeing. This holistic approach is essential if we are to maximise the impact of our money and policy, and more important than ever before given the challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic is creating for health services across the world. In responding to the ICAI recommendations, we are reviewing our approach to maternal health results to include more context based country data and to increase our focus on long-term, sustainable change.

The Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) review of maternal health results in 2018 made five recommendations, including adopting a long-term approach to maternal health planning, linking strongly to health system strengthening work and increasing the focus on quality of care. We welcomed all recommendations and the 2020 follow up review acknowledged our swift progress, finding that the UK had 'enhanced its emphasis on the need for good quality, respectful care for women and their babies and increased focus on adolescents and poorer women within its new family planning programmes'. ICAI also recognised the UK Government's commitment to Ending the Preventable Deaths of Mothers, Newborns and Children by 2030 and to international advocacy for comprehensive sexual reproductive health and rights.

Using internationally accepted methods, we estimate that the UK Government has spent an average of approximately £1 billion per year on Maternal Newborn and Child Health between 2013/14 - 2017/18, on a range of bilateral and multilateral programmes. Maternal health remains a key priority throughout our health work, with recently announced investments including £600 million to the Reproductive Health Supplies programme to buy family planning supplies for millions more women and girls in the world's poorest countries each year.

The UK commitment to ending preventable deaths has created further momentum to ensure the right balance in the FCDO portfolio across family planning, health services and other essential interventions for maternal and newborn health and wellbeing. This holistic approach is essential if we are to maximise the impact of our money and policy, and more important than ever before given the challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic is creating for health services across the world. In responding to the ICAI recommendations, we are reviewing our approach to maternal health results to include more context based country data and to increase our focus on long-term, sustainable change.

The Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs aims to respond to Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) reviews within six weeks of the reports' publication dates.

This is the usual timescale for Government responses to ICAI reviews and enables the Government to give proper consideration to reviews and the recommendations made within them.

The Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs aims to respond to the ICAI review of DFID's results in Nutrition within six weeks of the report's publication date. This is the usual timescale for Government responses to ICAI reviews and will enable the Government to give proper consideration to the report and the recommendations made within it.

The UK was at the forefront of agreeing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, and we remain committed to being at the forefront of global efforts to achieve them. On the 2 September, we appointed Nick Dyer as the UK’s first Special Envoy for Famine Prevention and Humanitarian Affairs, which has strong links to the SDGs including Goal 2 on Zero Hunger. The FCDO brings together the best of our development and diplomatic expertise, projecting the UK as a Force for Good in the world, with a continued focus on supporting the bottom billion. Championing global progress on the SDGs, and using our G7 and COP presidencies, will be crucial to these aims. The SDGs also play a vital role in post-COVID-19 recovery.