Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Verma on 11 May (HL8117) what assessment they have made of paragraph 27 of the Third Report of the House of Commons International Development Committee <i>The UK’s Development Work in the Occupied Palestinian Territories</i> which states "We are nevertheless concerned that DFID is not taking adequate measures to prevent its funds from being misused. Given the scale of the operation, with 85,000 civil servants being paid with UK money, there is a serious risk of abuse. We do not regard a six-monthly audit as an adequate protection to secure the integrity of UK aid money."

We investigate thoroughly any claims that UK funds are misused. UK aid to the PA is subject to rigorous scrutiny, with safeguards in place to ensure its being used for proper development purposes.

UK support to the PA funds named civil servants from a pre-approved EU list only. The EU PEGASE mechanism is used to earmark funds to payment of vetted PA civil servants and pensioners. The list of approved recipients is subject to a vetting process that includes screening against international and ad hoc sanctions lists. The screening covers over 20 different risk categories, including terrorism financing and is updated daily.

The EU PEGASE mechanism is independently audited, as is UK direct financial assistance to the PA.