Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to the Answer of 28 February to Question 18834 on Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG): Fossil Fuels, how much funding was provided by the PIDG to (a) the 32 fossil fuel related infrastructure projects (b) the 35 renewable power projects.
Answered by James Duddridge
The value of Private Investment Development Group (PIDG) commitments to energy projects disaggregated by renewables and non-renewables is published in the PIDG Annual Review, which is available publicly online.
You can find it the 2018 annual review at: https://www.pidg.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/PIDG_2018_Annual_Review_MAY2019_Final_Digital-4.pdf
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to the Answer of 7 February to Question 14010 on Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG): Fossil Fuels, how many Environmental and Social Impact Assessments were conducted by PIDG in each of the past 10 years; and how many projects were not approved on environmental grounds.
Answered by James Duddridge
Private Investment Development Group (PIDG) complies with international best practice standards and PIDG companies complete an Environmental, Social and Health Impact Assessment for each project in which they invest, before approving any such investment.
Each investment must comply with PIDG’s Environment, Social, Health and Safety standards, which are based on the internationally recognised International Finance Corporation Environment and Social Performance Standards. DFID monitors compliance with these policies as part of its ongoing role as a PIDG Owner.
PIDG does not hold data on projects specifically rejected on the grounds of environmental concerns.
The Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) prioritises investments in renewables wherever possible. PIDG does not have any active fossil fuel extraction projects, and PIDG’s strategy rules out any investments in coal.
Data on all PIDG investment commitments are available online via its Results Monitoring Database and its annual reports (https://www.pidg.org/). DFID also publishes data relating to its funding to PIDG via DevTracker.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent discussions her Department has had with representatives of the business sector on the elimination of deforestation from business supply chains as set out in the Amsterdam Declaration on Deforestation.
Answered by James Duddridge
The UK supports a number of initiatives which facilitate engagement, dialogue and collaboration with companies to eliminate deforestation from supply chains, in line with the aims of the Amsterdam Declarations.
This includes business roundtables to help UK companies realise sustainable sourcing commitments for palm oil and soya; the Tropical Forest Alliance, a public-private initiative with over 160 members, hosted by the World Economic Forum, which is working to help companies realise commitments to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains for palm oil, soya, beef and paper & board; and support to the Cocoa and Forests Initiative, which works with the global cocoa and chocolate industries to eliminate deforestation from the cocoa supply chain.
This collaboration is helping to accelerate the implementation of new industry norms and practices for sustainability, but further work is required to ensure that these are taken up broadly across global agricultural commodity supply chains.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent assessment her Department has made of its progress on eliminating deforestation from business supply chains as set out in the Amsterdam Declaration on Deforestation.
Answered by James Duddridge
Supporting trade in sustainable commodities is a key focus of DFID’s approach to tackling climate change. Partnerships for Forests (£104 million, 2015 - 2023) has been established to accelerate private sector commitments to eliminate deforestation from supply chains.
The programme is working at all levels of supply chains for cocoa, palm oil, rubber and soya, to build stronger demand for sustainable commodities, develop new industry sustainability standards, and test new and sustainable ways of growing commodities without causing deforestation.
This is helping to establish new industry norms and practices, but further work is required to ensure that these are taken up broadly across global agricultural commodity supply chains.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps he takes to monitor the proportion of CDC Group’s investments held offshore or in offshore entities; and what the value was of CDC’s offshore investments at 31 March 2019.
Answered by James Duddridge
CDC invests in accordance with its policy on the payment of taxes and the use of offshore financial centres which is available on CDCs website. Under this policy, which has been agreed with DFID and is reviewed annually, CDC’s preference is to invest directly into the country in which the investee company’s business operations are located. Where CDC does use an offshore financial centre, it only uses those that are compliant with international tax transparency standards, as monitored by the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Tax information.
As of 31st March 2019, 25% of CDC’s investments are held in CDC investment companies not domiciled in the UK.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what reviews he has undertaken on the adequacy of CDC’s controls on the use of offshore accounts and investments by CDC management and senior staff in the last two years.
Answered by James Duddridge
CDC reviews its tax policy at least annually with a view to remaining consistent with evolving international standards and the best practice of multilateral and bilateral development finance institutions. This policy is regularly reviewed by DFID.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to the Answer of 12 February to Question 14008 on Private Infrastructure Development Group: Fossil Fuels, how many fossil fuel related infrastructure projects the Department has allocated funding to through the Private Infrastructure Development Group; when funding was allocated to each of those projects; and how much funding was allocated.
Answered by James Duddridge
DFID is one of a number of institutions who provide funding to the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG). DFID has disbursed $1,036 million to PIDG between 2002 and 2018. During that time, PIDG has made investment commitments totalling $3,610 million.
During this 16-year period, PIDG has provided funding to 32 fossil fuel related infrastructure projects. These are principally investments in power projects in the poorest countries to increase access to power, some of which use fossil fuels to generate electricity. Nine of these funding commitments were in the form of early-stage advisory services.
Over the same period, PIDG provided funding to 35 renewable power projects.
Data on all PIDG investment commitments are available online via its Results Monitoring Database and its annual reports. DFID also publishes data relating to its funding to PIDG via DevTracker.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment his Department monitors the cash held by its subsidiaries in offshore bank accounts; and how frequently his subsidiaries report those balances to his Department.
Answered by James Duddridge
DFID does not have any subsidiaries.
To enable greater transparency in and to identify our flow of funds, programme delivery chains are mapped out to identify and capture the names of all partners involved in delivering a specific good, service or change, down to the end beneficiary is completed. In addition to this delivery partners are required to publish data to the IATI standard on all its DFID funding.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether his Department’s (a) anti-fraud and (b) anti-money laundering procedures review (i) payments by his Department to offshore accounts and (ii) the use of offshore accounts by his Department's (A) suppliers and (B) senior staff.
Answered by James Duddridge
There are robust anti-fraud and anti-money laundering measures in place for all DFID expenditure. The following controls are in place:
(A) For suppliers, relevant corporate assurance assessments and due diligence checks are completed by programme teams before new suppliers are added to the system, and the Treasury and Banking team are required to select the destination country for bank templates. In addition, the team check that the final destination account does not differ from that in the payment request.
(B) All our staff are governed by DFID’s Standards of Behaviour and Conduct including the Civil Service Code for staff and the seven Principles of Public life for office holders. As part of this, both staff and office holders are required to declare any conflicts of interest including private investments.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether (a) members of his Departmental Board and (b) senior executives in his Department are required to disclose their offshore bank accounts and holdings.
Answered by James Duddridge
All DFID staff are governed by the Civil Service Code and core values, the 7 Principles of Public life, and DFID’s staff code of practice. These require that both staff and office holders declare any conflicts of interest, including those involving private or personal business and financial concerns.