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 international development aid is not spent on the promotion of terrorism.

DFID’s development work complements and reinforces the UK’s efforts to counter terrorism and extremism. DFID helps to build stronger, stable and more democratic states and societies that are better able to respond to the threat from terrorism. Development programmes can do this by addressing poor governance, corruption, inequality, marginalisation and a lack of economic opportunity which create the enabling environment which extremists exploit. We have enhanced our operational framework and internal guidance to ensure that DFID effectively manages the risk of aid diversion to terrorist groups in line with our obligations under the 2000 Terrorism Act. A dedicated Counter Terrorist Financing Officer has also been appointed. DFID controls include a comprehensive management framework which requires risks to be identified at design stage and reassessed regularly during the project. Further measures include understanding the country context; where terrorist organisations are operating; and the impact of our programmes, to monitor unintended consequences. Every project is subject to an annual performance review and a project completion review, to ensure that the desired objectives have been achieved, and that aid has been delivered to the intended beneficiaries.