Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much her Department spent on carbon offsetting in each of the last three years; and to which companies payments in respect of carbon offsetting were made in each such year.
Answered by Grant Shapps - Secretary of State for Defence
DFID has offset all its air miles flown annually since 2008 through the Government Carbon Offsetting Scheme (GCOF). We have spent the following sums in each of the last three years:
2011/12: £8,345
2012/13: £14,208
2013/14: £25,341
In 2011/12 and 2012/13 payment was made to EDF Trading Ltd. In 2013/14 it was made to Carbon Footprint Ltd.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, which news applications staff in her Department are authorised to download and use on their work-provided phones and tablets.
Answered by Justine Greening
For all devices connected to the DFID network, access to news applications is restricted.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much her Department has spent on projects solely for the benefit of (a) males and (b) females in each of the last five years.
Answered by Baroness Featherstone
The particular information requested is not collected centrally and is not available without incurring disproportionate costs. The UK Government is committed to increasing focus on girls and women across all our investments to ‘stop poverty before it starts’ by creating environments that unlock their voices, choices and control, and that empowers them economically.
Since May 2014, under the International Development (Gender Equality) Act 2014, DFID is required to give regard to the contribution its assistance is likely to make to reducing gender inequality, or to gender-related differences in needs, before assistance is provided.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what the cost to the public purse was of the Girl Effect Art Installation in her Departmental offices.
Answered by Baroness Featherstone
There is no Girl Effect Art Installation in DFID offices. The “GIRL” letters were commissioned as a backdrop for Girl Summit 2014, an event hosted by the UK Government and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to help bring an end to female genital mutilation and child, early and forced marriage. They were also used as a backdrop for #YouthforChange, a youth event held at the Department for International Development on 19 July to kick-start a youth movement on girls’ rights.
Nike Foundation made a substantive financial contribution to the Girl Summit, including providing funds to cover the cost of the “GIRL” letters. These continue to be displayed in the entrance hall of the Department for International Development as a way of maintaining momentum from the Girl Summit and raising awareness of the need to end FGM and CEFM within a generation.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much her Department has spent on media monitoring in each of the last five years.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
Since financial year 2008/9, media monitoring costs have been reduced by more than half to £63,960.40 in 2012/13.
2008-09 | 2009-10 | 2010-11 | 2011-12 | 2012-13 |
£159,000.00 | £152,000.00 | £102,000.00 | £77,000.00 | £64,000.00 |
Figures rounded to the nearest 1000.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what measures are in place to ensure that aid given to foreign countries is used for the purposes intended; and what proportion of such aid not being used for those purposes would result in future aid being denied to that country.
Answered by Justine Greening
DFID has a number of controls in place focussing on monitoring and evaluation, including both internal and external audits and reports from the International Development Committee and the Independent Commission for Aid Impact.
DFID has strong internal review processes in place to make sure projects are properly monitored and closed if they are not delivering good results and value for money.