Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department has received guidance on the permissibility of treating donations of Special Drawing Rights as Overseas Development Assistance; and if he will make a statement.

· The UK does not donate Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), but has led in lending SDRs to International Monetary Fund (IMF) Trusts that support vulnerable countries. The UK scores Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) in line with international rules set by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Development Assistance Committee (DAC).

· The DAC conducted a review of the ODA scoring of SDR loans in 2022, which concluded that SDR loans to the IMF should no longer be scored as ODA, noting that countries that previously scored ODA on SDR loans, did so in accordance with interpretation of the DAC guidance at the time. His Majesty's Government is adopting the new DAC approach in our reporting from 2022.