Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what definition of gross national income he uses to calculate spending towards the Government's targets of (a) 0.7 per cent spending on overseas development aid and (b) two per cent spending on defence.

A) The UK Government plans its spending on official development assistance (ODA) using independent GNI estimates published by the ONS and forecasts published by OBR at that time. The official definition of GNI used to calculate spend on ODA is as follows: Gross national income (at market prices) represents total primary income receivable by resident institutional units: compensation of employees, taxes on production and imports less subsidies, property income (receivable less payable), gross operating surplus and gross mixed income. B) Spending on defence is measured against GDP based on figures published by the OECD.