Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, with reference to paragraph 4.11 of UK aid: tackling global challenges in the national interest, published in November 2015, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that the transparency standards of the Prosperity Fund are ranked as good or very good in the international Aid Transparency Index.

The Prosperity Fund, which is led and managed by the National Security Secretariat in Cabinet Office, is committed to meeting the government target of ‘good’ on the International Aid Transparency Index by 2020. The Fund is working closely with DFID policy and Transparency teams, benefiting from their experience and expertise and the International Aid Transparency Initiative to ensure it meets standards for transparency.

The Fund has already begun working towards this target, publishing its first Annual Review in 2017, alongside a data release on spend for 2016/17. It will continue to increase the amount of information published on spend and programmes as it becomes available.