Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what estimate she has made of the additional costs resulting from Israeli border, access and planning controls to UK-funded development projects in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

No such assessment has been possible. UK aid helps to finance the Palestinian Authority's fiscal deficit, which would significantly decrease if Israeli movement and access restrictions in the OPTs were lifted. The World Bank estimates that if Israeli restrictions were lifted in ‘Area C' of the West Bank alone, the Palestinian economy would expand by more than a third and potentially would not require international donor assistance.