Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that UK Government aid to the Palestinian Territories is not used to help finance violence or terrorism.

No UK aid is used for payments to Palestinian prisoners, or their families. The UK’s direct financial assistance to the PA is used to pay the salaries of public sector workers only. Our support is provided through a multi-donor trust fund administered by the World Bank, which carries out close monitoring of Palestinian Authority expenditure. Only named civil servants from a pre-approved EU list are eligible. The process is subject to independent auditing.