Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she is taking to ensure that UK development assistance does not end up in the hands of terrorist groups or regimes that persecute LGBT people, religious minorities or minority ethnic groups.

The Department for International Development has robust measures in place to protect, prevent, and detect the diversion of aid. We have controls embedded through-out the programme cycle, from design through mobilisation, delivery and closure; this includes a rigorous due diligence process and a comprehensive risk management framework which requires risks to be identified prior to any disbursement of aid.

All organisations that receive funding from DFID are required to provide evidence about the use of funds, including audited financial statements which are examined as we monitor programme performance and delivery. All of our funding mechanisms allow DFID to terminate funding projects early if suppliers do not fulfil their obligations. DFID uses the UK Partnership Principles which are a set of 4 principles to assess partner governments. These include a commitment to respect human rights, and in particular the civil, social and cultural rights of poor or marginalised people.

We have a zero tolerance approach to aid diversion and this applies to all those within the delivery chain who are entrusted with UK aid. When aid diversion is identified DFID will always work to recover UK taxpayers’ money.