Asked by: Gavin Shuker (Independent - Luton South)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much her Department has spent on (a) physical infrastructure and (b) hygiene promotion for water, sanitation and hygiene services in (i) rural and (ii) urban areas in (1) Sierra Leone and (2) Liberia in each of the last five years; and what such spending her Department has planned for in each of the next three years.
Answered by Grant Shapps
DFID has spent the following on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Services (WASH) programmes in Sierra Leone and Liberia in each of the last five years, from its bilateral aid budget:
2009 (GBP millions) | 2010 (GBP millions) | 2011 (GBP millions) | 2012 (GBP millions) | 2013 (GBP millions) | Total (GBP millions) | |
Sierra Leone | £3.2 | £3.2 | £4.4 | £11.2 | £15.3 | £37.4 |
Liberia | £4 | £0.4 | £2.5 | £6.8 | ||
£7.2 | £3.6 | £4.4 | £11.2 | £17.8 | £44.2 |
This includes work on both physical infrastructure and hygiene promotion in rural and urban areas; however the data is not broken down in the format requested.
These programmes resulted in over 1 million people gaining access to improved sanitation facilities in Sierra Leone and more than 250 tonnes of municipal solid waste being collected in Monrovia through proper channels.
The ongoing Ebola outbreak, which began in 2014, has devastated both countries. DFID has continued to provide support to WASH as part of our unprecedented £427m response to the crisis. In July this year, the Secretary of State approved a new £240m package to support the government of Sierra Leone in their plans to recover from the outbreak, as well as an additional £6m for the Government of Liberia. Programming, which is now underway, is likely to continue to include significant support for the WASH sector.
Asked by: Gavin Shuker (Independent - Luton South)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department takes to ensure that all UK aid is responsive to climate change and low carbon development.
Answered by Grant Shapps
DFID’s responsibilities on climate and environment derive from the International Development Act’s commitment to sustainable development, based on the substantial evidence that poverty eradication is not possible without tackling climate change. Hence all DFID programmes are assessed for climate and environment opportunities and risks. The capacity of staff to do this has also been strengthened through DFID’s ‘Future Fit’ programme which has helped spending departments identify key climate issues in their programmes.
In addition, the UK’s flagship International Climate Fund (ICF) has been used to comprehensively address climate issues through DFID programmes in climate vulnerable sectors such as forestry, water, agriculture and disaster management. The ICF has already helped 15m people cope with the impacts of climate change, and created 39,000 jobs.
Asked by: Gavin Shuker (Independent - Luton South)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether her Department has reached a decision on whether to fund an extension of the Nigerian Infrastructure Advisory Facility - beyond NIAF 2.
Answered by Grant Shapps
The Nigerian Infrastructure Advisory Facility 2 (NIAF2) will end in December 2016. A decision regarding future support for infrastructure development in Nigeria beyond NIAF2 will be taken during the next Country Operational Plan period, starting in April 2016.
Asked by: Gavin Shuker (Independent - Luton South)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to (a) help developing countries create efficient tax regimes for multi-national corporations and (b) work with governments in other countries to ensure an equitable tax system for multi-national corporations in developing countries.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
The Department for International Development funds the OECD and World Bank Group to provide expert advice to developing country tax authorities to improve their capacity in taxing multinational enterprises and better administering transfer pricing. At the Autumn Statement the Government also announced £1.8 million for HMRC to recruit a dedicated team of experts to tackle tax avoidance and evasion in developing countries, complementing the work of the HMRC Tax Capacity Building Unit. DFID also support the OECD’s Tax Inspectors Without Borders initiative, which puts expert tax auditors in the field working on complex multinational audit cases. In addition the Government is working with OECD members and G20 countries to ensure that developing countries can not only participate in the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) process that is reforming international tax rules, but also implement the outputs that emerge.
Asked by: Gavin Shuker (Independent - Luton South)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if the Government will support at the UN Financing for Development conference the creation of a new international tax body under the auspices of the UN.
Answered by Justine Greening
The UK is helping developing world countries collect more tax, for example through DFID-funded HMRC teams working in Pakistan and several other countries, and we are ensuring developing countries are participating in international processes, for example they are directly involved in the G20/OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) process and efforts by international organisations to produce practical toolkits to help developing countries implement new BEPS standards. We will continue to champion these and other important efforts to reform domestic and international tax systems at the UN Financing for Development conference.
Asked by: Gavin Shuker (Independent - Luton South)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what the Government's priorities will be at the UN Financing for Development Conference in Addis Ababa in July 2015; and what her assessment is of the likely outcome of that conference.
Answered by Justine Greening
As a country that has met its commitment to spend 0.7% of GNI on international development, the UK’s priority for the UN Financing for Development Conference is to provide a solid foundation for the post-2015 summit in September and the climate meeting in December.
Negotiations are still underway and we are working to ensure the UK priorities form a core part of the agenda going forward.