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Written Question
Palestinians: Overseas Aid
Monday 22nd June 2020

Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Non-affiliated - Life peer)

Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the value for money of aid sent to the Palestinian Authority, following reports that it spends seven per cent of its budget, and up to 40 per cent of its foreign aid receipts, on payments to terrorists and their families.

Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

No UK aid is used for payments to prisoners or their families or the so called Martyrs Fund. Our financial support to the Palestinian Authority health and education sectors goes into a dedicated bank account and is only paid to individual workers carefully vetted through the PEGASE mechanism (Palestinian-European Socio-Economic Management Assistance Mechanism). Each payment is independently audited to ensure it has been received by the intended recipient.

As is standard practice for all DFID programmes, we assess value for money for the UK taxpayer annually through our review process. Last year UK aid enabled 26,000 young Palestinians in the West Bank to get an education, delivered 3,300 MMR vaccinations for children and enabled 111,000 medical consultations. This is an important contribution towards supporting a stable Palestinian Authority (PA) that can deliver essential services to Palestinians and act as an effective partner for peace with Israel.

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