Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effect of not announcing the impact of Official Development Assistance reductions for individual programmes and activities for 2021 on the ability for organisations and country offices to plan.

The Government has had to take urgent decisions to safeguard the British economy in light of the COVID pandemic. This includes the difficult decision to temporarily reduce the UK aid budget to 0.5% of GNI. The Foreign Secretary has kept Parliament informed at every stage of this process, including through my announcement of a new Strategic Framework for ODA last November and a statement on the outcome of the cross-government ODA review in January this year.

Final decisions on individual programmes and activities have not yet been made. Heads of Mission will receive notice of their country-level settlement once Ministers have taken those decisions. Delivery partners will be informed of any implications for their programmes as soon as possible, in most cases via communication with the FCDO Senior Responsible Owner.