Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much his Department has spent on tackling malnutrition and starvation in the developing world in each of the last five years; and what his Department's budget will be to tackle malnutrition and starvation in each of the next three years.

According to independent analysis, the department spent £667 million in 2015, £629 million in 2016, £693 million in 2017 and £699 million in 2018 on programmes to address the direct and underlying causes of malnutrition. Analysis of our 2019 spend will be published in June 2021 when data is available publicly through the OECD DAC Creditor Reporting System.

The department spent £308 million in 2015, £338 million in 2016, £365 million in 2017, £349 million in 2018 and £395 million in 2019 specifically on food assistance and food security programming.

In September 2020, the Foreign Secretary announced a £119 million package of support to combat famine and acute hunger. This includes a new 5-year partnership with UNICEF to improve prevention and treatment of acute malnutrition.

Addressing malnutrition and acute food insecurity remain important for our objectives on global health and humanitarian preparedness and response. The Department is beginning a rigorous internal prioritisation process in response to the spending review announcement and we will update on this in due course.