Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what definition of social investment is used by her Department.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
DFID does not have a definition of “social investment”.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what guidelines her Department follows in regards to health data sharing in the countries in which it works.
Answered by Grant Shapps
When working in the health sector, DFID usually relies on national data sets or those collected by other partners, such as Demographic and Health Surveys. We usually encourage sharing of data and have worked with the World Health Organization and other UN agencies to encourage them to share data more actively with permission from governments.
Research funded by DFID is covered by our Research Open and Enhanced Access Policy. Open access refers to irrevocable and free online access by any user worldwide to the full version of the scientific and scholarly material. The policy includes the sharing of data from which any research is derived. The policy recommends that raw datasets are deposited in a suitable open access discipline or institutional repository within 12 months of final data collection. Researchers should also retain and provide free on request raw datasets for a minimum of five years after project completion.
The full open access policy is available online: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dfid-research-open-and-enhanced-access-policy.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment she has made of the level and sustainability of public and private debt in emerging African economies.
Answered by Grant Shapps
There has been a marked improvement in the debt position of many African countries over the last 15 years as a result of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative and the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI), both of which were established following strong UK leadership. Many countries have borrowed prudently over recent years and do not raise concerns about debt sustainability. But some countries’ debt levels are rising at an unsustainable rate.
I welcome the recent change in the IMF’s debt limit policy to take account of all public external debt in its setting of debt limits for countries which are at risk of unsustainable debt. I also welcome the review of the way the IMF analyses debt sustainability for consideration by the IMF Board early next year. In addition to this, recent discussions at the Paris Forum, G20 and at the third Conference on Financing for Development (FFD) in Addis Ababa are important in recognising the vital role of both lenders and borrowers acting responsibly to promote debt sustainability.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much her Department spent on training in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
Spend on Training and Development is managed through individual DFID Departments and Country Offices, and therefore providing this information can only be achieved at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what her Department's training budget was in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
The majority of Training and Development Budgets are allocated by individual DFID Departments and Country Offices, and therefore providing this information can only be achieved at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what guidance her Department provides to its managers on how many days training should be made available to staff.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
Cabinet Office advises departments that staff should aim to have at least 5 days per year training and development.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what the average number of days training of full-time equivalent staff employed in her Department was in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
Responsibility for training in DFID is decentralised to departments and country offices. We do not maintain a central record of the training undertaken by individuals. To gather the information retrospectively would incur disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what estimate she has made of the savings to her Department from the Q&A system in the (a) 12 months and (b) five years since 4 June 2014; what additional ICT systems or improvements to existing systems her Department has introduced or plans to introduce that would not have been feasible without the Q&A system; and what assessment she has made of the extent to which the system has made it easier to answer questions from hon. Members on time.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
Following the introduction of the Q&A system, the Department cancelled an annual subscription to receive a daily feed of Parliamentary Questions (PQs) tabled to the Department. This has resulted in a saving of just over £6500 per year. In addition, the Department has made savings associated with the cost of printing hardcopies of PQs and delivering answers to Parliament each day. The Department worked with the House authorities in order to ensure that the introduction of the system did not require any changes or improvements to the Department’s existing ICT systems. DFID Ministers are committed to ensuring that written PQs receive timely answers, and it is welcome that the new system ensures that hon and Rt hon Members receive their answers instantly once uploaded.
One of the benefits of the new system is the possibility for the reporting of the timeliness of answers to Parliamentary Questions to be delivered with greater consistency and accuracy across all answering bodies. It will be for the Procedure Committee to evaluate the effectiveness of the new system in improving performance when it assesses the evidence following the end of the session.