Draft International Development Association (Seventeenth Replenishment: Additional Payments) Order 2016

Seema Malhotra Excerpts

Monday 12th September 2016 General Committees

[Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)]

I thank the Minister and shadow Minister for their speeches. The Minister highlighted IDA’s important work. When I visited Nepal earlier this year, I certainly saw the importance of that work and of infrastructure financing and investment. He said that there had been a shift to channelling more funds towards fragile and conflict-affected states, but will he confirm whether that involves moving funds away from health and education infrastructure in other countries? What is being done to ensure that we balance our responsibilities to other nations? I understand the multilateral nature of this matter but, bearing in mind that negotiations will be continuing about the next phase of post-2017 funding, may we have a debate in the House before December on the Government’s priorities going forward and the impact that our support will have?

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[Rory Stewart]

How foolish of me to think that there were only three questions, given that I have just been hit by five very good additional questions. I thank the Scottish National party and the whole Committee for their support for this order and for moving ahead with this important work in international development.

With your permission, Mr Bone, I will take each of the five questions in turn. The shadow Minister asked the very important question of why we are making a loan, because this actually is not a grant, but a loan. IDA itself is a loan-making body that makes a range of concessional loans and grants. We feel it is right, given that the association will in turn be lending this money and receiving the principal back, that the British taxpayer should also be able to lend this money and receive the principal back in 20 years’ time. That will not affect the results. Results will still be achieved by the loan, but the principal will come back to us.

My hon. Friend the Member for South Thanet asked how many of the loans are written off. We often make concessional loans to very fragile countries, and some of them do not come right. That is why we have a combination of loans and grants. We would expect our loans to be repaid, but this £350 million that we are putting in is within the context of a total package of about £2 billion of UK support, of which the overwhelming majority is in the form of grants.

One reason why this happens is that we encourage IDA to go into areas where the private sector will not wish to invest, so we expect that a certain number of the loans will not come good, but that relates to the question asked by my hon. Friend the Member for Tonbridge and Malling. We have to be hugely careful about fraud because the sums that we are talking about are enormous. The state capacity in some of the countries in which we operate is limited, and there are also other problems, such as security problems, which can make it quite difficult for our staff to get out on the ground and directly see projects.

[Seema Malhotra]

The Minister is responding to an important point. May I add to the list of concerns those states where there might be corruption, human rights abuses or dictatorships that could be supported by our funding? We need to be mindful of how we handle such difficult situations.

[Rory Stewart]

The questions asked by the hon. Lady and my hon. Friend the Member for Tonbridge and Malling are central to this subject. This is, in the end, UK taxpayers’ money that comes from hard-working people. Those people believe in trying to deal with humanitarian crises and in helping the world’s poorest people, but they have an absolute right to expect that their hard-won money is being used in the right way.

We have a series of different mechanisms in place to try to deal with that. A multilateral aid review happens every three years and the independent commission reports directly to Parliament. We have our own internal audit team, and we also do annual reviews. It is possible to look at the development tracker on our website and to see our annual review, published in April, specifically of the IDA programme. We gave the programme an alpha-plus in the previous review, but note three particular areas of gender, climate change and the issue of fragile and conflict states regarding which we think it could be better. One reason why we work so closely with and are one of the larger contributors to the World Bank is that it has a very good track record—better than that of almost anyone else—in trying to address issues of corruption, transparency and predictability in the management of its financial processes.

Nepal Earthquake: First Anniversary

Seema Malhotra Excerpts

Monday 25th April 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Thomas]

I join the hon. Gentleman in paying tribute to the many charities, small and large, that have assisted. I want to draw particular attention to the contribution that many from Britain made to the search and rescue effort once reports of the earthquake had become clear, and to pay tribute to the work of NGOs such as the excellent Oxfam, Save the Children, VSO and Christian Aid, which have responded. CAFOD is another strong example of an international NGO operating in Nepal.

[Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)]

This is indeed a very important day to remember what happened last year. A few weeks ago, I visited Nepal with my constituent Bishnu Gurung, who raised a significant amount of funds in Hounslow, along with fellow Councillor Hanif Khan, to support the work of Humanity First. Does my hon. Friend agree that, as well as looking at the reconstruction, it is absolutely vital to rebuild the economy of Nepal—its GDP growth dropped to about 1.5% rather than the forecast 4%—and we need to do much more to open up trade relations and to build Britain-Nepal trade opportunities?

[Mr Thomas]

My hon. Friend makes a good point about trade links. Encouraging economic growth within Nepal was important before the earthquake, given the fragility of life for many Nepalese people, but it is particularly urgent now in the wake of the earthquake. World Bank and Government of Nepal analysts estimate that the total cost of the damage from the earthquake is roughly $7 billion, or 706 billion Nepalese rupees.

With the exception of the Kathmandu valley, the central and western regions that have been affected by the earthquake are essentially rural and heavily dependent on agriculture. The quake destroyed the stockpile of stored grains and killed almost 60,000 farm animals. These districts have tended to see larger numbers of households reliant on livestock as their main, or one of their main, sources of income. The widespread loss of that livestock has caused a severe income shock in the short term for many already very poor families. Sadly, inevitably for vulnerable families with fewer assets, limited access to economic resources and a lack of alternative livelihoods, there is a heightened risk of sexual and gender-based violence, human trafficking, child marriage, and child labour. Indeed, I have had representations from Nepalese constituents of mine worried about an increase in the trafficking of young earthquake victims.

If a major earthquake was not tough enough on its own for a country to negotiate, there has been a major cross-party effort to agree a new federal constitution for Nepal. That was finally agreed in January, but it led to a 135-day unofficial blockade of food and fuel across the India-Nepal border, which has made the reconstruction effort even more difficult. It would be helpful to hear the Minister’s assessment of the level of political stability in Nepal and the strength, or otherwise, of its relationships with its two big neighbours. The tensions have, I understand, eased recently. Crucially, the Nepal Reconstruction Authority has been established, which began its work on 16 January.

Oral Answers to Questions

Seema Malhotra Excerpts

Wednesday 4th February 2015 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

I am not sure whether the hon. Lady is aware, but we have worked hand in hand with the Medical Research Council and GlaxoSmithKline to help those trials to come forward faster. In fact, the Minister for Government Policy and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster , my right hon. Friend the Member for West Dorset (Oliver Letwin), has played a pivotal role internationally in ensuring that those trials could progress. It would be more constructive if she asked some relevant questions, rather than scoring pointless political points.

[Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)]

6. What recent progress has been made on negotiations to agree the sustainable development goals.

[Naomi Long (Belfast East) (Alliance)]

8. What steps she is taking to ensure that the UK plays a leading role in preparations to set new UN development goals in September 2015.

[The Secretary of State for International Development (Justine Greening)]

The UK plays a leading role internationally at the EU and UN and bilaterally to push for an ambitious and implementable post-2015 framework. As the hon. Member for Feltham and Heston (Seema Malhotra) will know, the first session of intergovernmental negotiations on the SDGs has concluded, and the open working group proposal includes 17 goals and 169 targets. We support the breadth and balance of the proposal but will be arguing for a much more concise and workable agenda as negotiations progress.

[Seema Malhotra]

Millennium development goal 3 was to promote gender equality and empower women. Will the Secretary of State be championing the inclusion in the new SDGs of texts on ending violence against women and girls and supporting sexual and reproductive health and rights, as well as statements in the declaration of the commission on the status of women?

[Justine Greening]

Absolutely—yes. The Government play a leading role in raising the issue of violence against women and girls, and I pay tribute to the amazing work done by the then Foreign Secretary, my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague). I can assure her that we will continue to play that role.

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[Justine Greening]

On Iraq in particular, we work extremely hard on the so-called winterisation approach, ensuring that tents are warm, that people have blankets and that appropriate shelter, food and sanitation are in place. That has been done, but the challenge in the region is now immense. The Syrian crisis alone has seen 3.8 million refugees.

[Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)]

T6. Many people who live and work in the United Kingdom, including people in my constituency, wish to send money back to their families in other parts of the world. Initiatives from companies such as Xendpay are starting to challenge some of the costs of money transfer. What is the Secretary of State doing to address the charging of exorbitant fees of up to 20% for money transfer services such as those provided by Western Union?

[Justine Greening]

The hon. Lady is right to draw attention to the role played by remittances, which are a key part of the grand sweep of cash flow into developing countries. As she will know, we are working very hard in countries such as Somalia to ensure that families can continue to send money back to their relatives. I agree with her that one of the most important things we can do is introduce competition to the market, as well as helping to develop banking services so that people have more choice.

International Development (Official Development Assistance Target) Bill

Seema Malhotra Excerpts

Friday 12th September 2014 Commons Chamber

[Michael Moore]

I could not have put it better myself, and I am grateful to the hon. and learned Gentleman for his intervention.

[Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)]

The right hon. Gentleman has made important points about economic development for women. Does he agree that by tackling poverty in that way and supporting women’s progress, we are dealing not just with the needs of those women but with a benefit that translates into generations? Children having positive role models is in the long-term interests of us all.

[Michael Moore]

The hon. Lady makes a different point but it goes to the theme of the previous intervention. This is about legacy. If we get this right now, invest in the right way and support people, they in turn will be able to support themselves, and their children and grandchildren will live very different lives.

Oral Answers to Questions

Seema Malhotra Excerpts

Wednesday 5th March 2014 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

As I said earlier, when I see waste, I am determined to cut it. We have targeted our bilateral programme on fewer countries and we are taking aid out of countries that we think can afford the development themselves. On corruption, only 5% of our bilateral aid goes as budget support direct to Governments, but if I have concerns about corruption I stop that budget support, as I have done in Uganda and Malawi.

[Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)]

A news report today states that only 12% of women in India use sanitary pads because they are not available, and that a school drop-out has invented a sanitary pad that can be made in communities. What support is the Department giving to women’s health across the world?

[Justine Greening]

The MDG relating to maternal health, in particular, is critically important. We know that investing in women’s health, whether family planning, antenatal or post-natal, gives an extremely good return on investment. It can help women to have a more productive life, perhaps enabling them to go out to work and reinvest their income in their homes and communities. That is absolutely key and the hon. Lady is right to raise the issue.

Oral Answers to Questions

Seema Malhotra Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

We are deeply grateful to the Minister. We are immensely obliged to the Minister, but we have quite a lot to get through.

[Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)]

The Global Partnership for Education estimates that 50% of children who are out of school live in conflict-affected areas. Will the Minister say a little more about the discussions she has had with the Global Partnership for Education about how the UK can further support work to reduce disruption to education in countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan?

Oral Answers to Questions

Seema Malhotra Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd October 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I let it go the first time, but the word “conman” is, frankly, unparliamentary; the Prime Minister is a man of great versatility in the use of language and it is a bit below the level. We will leave it there.

[Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)]

Q5. Yesterday, The Independent reported the Government’s failure to close the quoted Eurobond tax loophole, which could be losing the Exchequer £500 million a year. Has the Prime Minister ever been lobbied on the loophole? Will he now pledge to close it immediately?

[The Prime Minister]

To my memory, I have never been lobbied on this particular issue. I looked at it this morning. The Treasury has listened very carefully to the arguments and has made the decisions for the reasons that the hon. Lady knows.

Oral Answers to Questions

Seema Malhotra Excerpts

Wednesday 12th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

We want to see more direct rail links such as the one my hon. Friend mentioned, and there is also a need for better links to Lancashire and Blackpool. One issue that the rail industry is battling with is the shortage of capacity, and High Speed 2 will help bring that freeing up of capacity to make more of those direct links possible. I was discussing that yesterday with the Transport Secretary, and we should be making some progress.

[Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)]

Q4. Last week the Prime Minister could not confirm that taxpayers would not subsidise foreign buyers of property in the UK. Perhaps he can instead clarify whether his Help to Buy scheme will see taxpayers help fund purchases of second homes and holiday cottages.

[The Prime Minister]

Let me try to give the hon. Lady some satisfaction. First, this scheme is for people’s only home and it will have a mechanism in place to ensure that is the case. The second important thing is that in order to take part in the scheme, a person must have a credit record in this country. So no, the scheme will not do what she says it would.