Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what the value was of Official Development Assistance spent by his Department in each of the last six years; and what proportion of that assistance was subject to the International Development Act 2002.

Details on 2015 calendar year Official Development Assistance (ODA) spend will be published in the National Statistics publication ‘Provisional UK ODA as a proportion of Gross National Income 2015’ on 1 April 2016, at department level. I am therefore providing values for the 6 year period 2009-2014.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) is building science and innovation partnerships between the UK and emerging economies through the Newton Fund, which began in 2014. The Newton Fund is subject to the International Development Act 2002, whilst all other BIS ODA spend is not. However, all of the Department’s ODA spending is in line with the aims of the International Development Act.

The Government is also introducing a new Global Challenges Research Fund of £1.5 billion over the next five years to ensure the UK’s world-leading research takes a leading role in addressing the problems faced by developing countries. This will mean that BIS’s ODA spend will increase over the current Spending Review period.