Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to the Answer of 15 May 2018 to Question 141795, on Palestinians: Overseas Aid, which the auditing body was that was charged with carrying out the independent financial audit.

Financial audits are carried out on all individual DFID programmes operating in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs). The body carrying out the audits, and the terms of reference for these audits vary depending on the DFID programme in operation in the OPTs, however all programmes receive full independent financial audits to provide assurance to DFID that disbursed funds are spent and managed in line with agreed programme activities. The overall DFID OPTs programme portfolio is also subject to the regular audit cycle of DFID’s Internal Audit Department and the National Audit Office.