Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the reduction in Official Development Assistance spending for environmental research on the achievement of their commitment to maintaining a place at the leading edge of science and technology.

The economic impact of the Covid pandemic has forced the UK Government to take tough, but necessary decisions to move to a target of spending 0.5 per cent of GNI on ODA in 2021, as a temporary measure. This has included cuts to ODA Science and Technology funding. We have worked with a range of stakeholders including UKRI, universities as well as directly with grant holders and funding partners to mitigate the impact of these cuts, adjust timeframes and results expectations, and continue to maximise the impact for every pound spent.

Despite the reductions, the UK remains a development superpower, with an ODA budget on track to exceed £10 billion this year. FCDO ODA will be targeted to addressing seven global challenges facing the world's poorest which both includes climate change and biodiversity, and science, research and technology. FCDO will make £251 million of science, research and technology investments across all seven themes of the Foreign Secretary's strategic objectives, including climate change and biodiversity.