Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he is taking to steps to prevent Government departments from spending UK aid that do not achieve a (a) good or (b) very good at the next assessment by the Aid Transparency Index.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The UK is globally recognised for its expertise and transparency in aid spending and continues to be committed to improving transparency of aid globally and maintaining our own high standards for overseas spending. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office will use this expert knowledge to work with aid spending Government departments to improve their aid transparency.
As with all public expenditure, HM Treasury allocates ODA funding to departments at each spending review. FCDO then provides support to these government departments through the HMG Transparency Community of Practice. This group has been used to champion aid transparency and has supported the majority of government departments to publish to the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) standard. The assessment of 10 UK aid spending departments (Aid Transparency Review) which was published in 2020 provided a set of recommendations for future improvement which FCDO is helping them implement.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he is taking steps to ensure that all UK aid spending Government departments achieve a (a) good or (b) very good at the next assessment by the the Aid Transparency Index.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The FCDO will use the recommendations made in the UK Aid Transparency Review, carried out by the Aid Transparency Index in 2020, to work with other Government departments to make progress on UK Government transparency in our next assessment. This will take place through the HMG Transparency Community of Practice which has championed aid transparency and supported government departments to publish to the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) standard.
The UK is globally recognised for its expertise and transparency in aid spending and continues to be committed to improving transparency of aid globally, maintaining our own high standards for overseas spending. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office will use this expert knowledge to work with aid spending Government departments to ensure good aid transparency.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department plans to allocate the same proportion of Official Development Assistance through other Government departments.
Answered by Wendy Morton
HM Treasury will set Official Development Assistance (ODA) budgets across government as part of the Comprehensive Spending Review taking place this year.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he will have final sign-off of Official Development Assistance spending proposed by other Government departments.
Answered by James Cleverly - Home Secretary
HM Treasury will set ODA budgets across government as part of the Comprehensive Spending Review taking place this year. The Integrated Review and Comprehensive Spending Reviews will conclude in the autumn - it would not be appropriate to pre-empt their conclusions.
Asked by: Lord Chidgey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what management and oversight precautions, if any, they are putting in place to (1) increase accountability of aid spending; and (2) prevent non-attributable day-to-day spending being re-badged as aid.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
The Government is committed to ensuring that every pound spent on Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) achieves maximum value for money for taxpayers based on the same high standards of accountability and effectiveness as all areas of public expenditure. Individual departments are responsible under public spending rules for monitoring all public money including their UK aid programming and ensuring that they deliver value for money. Robust parliamentary and independent scrutiny of the aid budget will continue – the form that Parliamentary scrutiny takes is for Parliament to decide. UK ODA continues to be spent in accordance with international rules on what constitutes aid as set by the Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what plans she has to commission a future review of the transparency of Official Development Assistance spending by all Government departments.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The UK is globally recognised for its expertise and transparency in aid spending. We are committed to improving transparency of aid globally and maintaining our high standards for overseas spending. We will continue to be accountable to parliament and to taxpayers for how we spend UK aid.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 29 June 2020 to Question 64925 on Overseas Aid, what evidence will be used to inform future decisions on department's ODA spending allocation; and what steps the Government is taking to ensure that all future ODA spending (a) maintain high standards of programme delivery consistent with his Department's best practice and (b) is subject to parliamentary scrutiny.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
We take into account a full range of information with departments when making adjustments to spending plans and budgets. Departmental Accounting Officers are responsible for assessing and assuring the impact and value for money of their ODA programmes on an ongoing basis in line with Managing Public Money. ODA spending will be presented to Parliament to vote upon through the normal Supply Estimates process and will be audited by the NAO when departments produce their annual report and accounts, as per normal process.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will confirm that the new Secretary of State of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office will continue to report annually on (a) aid levels across Government and (b) the effect of policies pursued by government departments on sustainable development and poverty reduction.
Answered by James Cleverly - Home Secretary
The Government will continue to be guided by its responsibilities under the International Development Act and will undertake the necessary parliamentary process to transfer responsibilities under the International Development Act to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. This merger is not about changing our high standards for overseas spending. We will continue to look at how our aid budget can be spent most effectively in our national interest, including through the Integrated Review - which will inform the priorities of the new department.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, which Official Development Assistance programmes are targeted at supporting women and girls; and which Department those programmes are run by.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The UK’s Gender Equality Act 2014 (an amendment to 2002 International Development Act, IDA), legally requires all overseas development funding to meaningfully consider the impact of how it will contribute to reducing gender inequality.
All ODA spend reported to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is screened against the gender equality policy marker and marked as ‘principal’ or ‘significant.’ This is a measurement of the proportion of aid that supports gender equality and women’s empowerment.
HMG’s spend on bilateral allocable activities targeting gender equality is made publicly available through the OECD statistics portal. For example, in 2018 £4.9 billion of HMG’s total bilateral spend was marked principal or significant (53%.) These are the latest figures available.
In order to ensure that our ODA spend is transparent, we publish details of international development programmes led by DFID, other government departments and partners on DevTracker.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 23 January 2020 to Question 5454 on Gulf States: Overseas Aid, how many project or programme activities have been funded by the Integrated Activity Fund solely for Bahrain during the financial years (a) 2018- 19 and (b) 2019-20; which Government departments applied for that funding to implement those project or programme activities; and how much money from the public purse was allocated from the Integrated Activity Fund to those project or programme activities.
Answered by James Cleverly - Home Secretary
I refer the Honourable Member to my response of 16 June 2020 to question 57298.