Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what the projected level of overseas development aid (ODA) expenditure on asylum accommodation is over the next three years; and whether he plans to ring-fence the amount of ODA available for that purpose.

The Government is committed to ensuring that asylum costs fall and has already acted. The Government has taken measures to reduce the asylum backlog, reform the asylum accommodation system to end the use of expensive accommodation in the next Spending Review (SR) period and increase detention capacity to facilitate more asylum removals.

Whilst there will always be volatility in asylum forecasts, we expect these decisions to drive down overall in-donor refugee costs over the next SR.

All UK Official Development Assistance (ODA) spending is consistent with the international rules agreed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD's) Development Assistance Committee. This includes ODA spent on in-donor refugee costs.