Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether the UK is on target to reach UN Sustainable Development Goal 10C of reducing the transaction costs of migrant remittances to less than 3 per cent by 2030.

According to the World Bank's data on remittances, the cost of sending £150 and £360 from the UK was 6.44% and 4.69% in Q1 2021. Transfer costs vary considerably depending on the recipient country and payment instrument. For example, the cost of sending £120 from the UK by debit/credit card was about half (4.88%) of the cost of using cash (9.54%) in 2020.

Significant barriers to reduce the transaction costs of sending remittances from the UK to reach the SDG target remain which is why we look to address these barriers collaboratively across-government and internationally to address the constraints in the UK and in recipient countries.