Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions the Government has had with BlackRock on participating in internationally agreed debt relief in Zambia.

Zambia is one of three countries – along with Chad and Ethiopia - to have so far requested the Common Framework, which was agreed between the G20 and Paris Club to help deliver a long-term, sustainable approach for supporting low-income countries to tackle their debt vulnerabilities.

Under the terms of the Common Framework, a debtor country that signs an MoU with participating official creditors will be required to seek from all private creditors a treatment at least as favourable. Accordingly, once Zambia signs an MoU for its case it will need to engage its private creditors to ensure their participation on comparable terms.

The UK is fully committed to ensuring the private sector plays its part and the Government engages private sector creditors on international debt issues in a number of fora.