Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to uphold the commitment under the Convention on Cluster Munitions not to assist in the (a) use and (b) transfer of cluster munitions.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
As a State Party to the Convention, the UK takes its obligations seriously. The UK discourages States from using cluster munitions and urges non-States Party to accede to the Convention without delay. In line with the provisions of the Convention, the UK engages in military co-operation and operations with non-States Party. In doing so, the UK does not assist anyone to engage in any activity prohibited to a State Party. The UK remains committed to ending the suffering and casualties caused by cluster munitions.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much Official Development Assistance funding the British Council plans to spend on developing grassroots football in (a) China and (b) Xinjiang in China in the financial year 2023/24; and what sums the British Council spent on developing grassroots football in China in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Over the spending review period 2022-2025, the FCDO will provide the British Council with £511 million Grant-in-Aid funding. Of this, £396 million will be provided as Official Development Assistance (ODA) and £115 million as non-ODA. As the British Council is operationally independent of government, questions on their programming and spend across regions in China are for them to answer.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much Official Development Assistance funding was spent by the British Council in China by (a) project and (b) region in (i) 2022-23 and (ii) 2023-24.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Over the spending review period 2022-2025, the FCDO will provide the British Council with £511 million Grant-in-Aid funding. Of this, £396 million will be provided as Official Development Assistance (ODA) and £115 million as non-ODA. As the British Council is operationally independent of government, questions on their programming and spend across regions in China are for them to answer.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the letter of 13 June 2023 from the Minister for Development and Africa to the Chair of the International Development Committee on the provisional statistics on international development for 2022, since which year his Department has offered the working-level ODA learning day to all Government Departments spending Official Development Assistance; which Government Departments attended the working-level ODA learning day delivered by his Department in (a) May 2023 and (b) each of the previous years in which his Department offered that learning day; and how many officials, at which grades, of each of those Departments attended that learning day in (i) May 2023 and (ii) each of the previous years in which his Department offered that learning day.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The Official Development Assistance (ODA) learning day in May 2023 was attended by around 100 working level officials across government ranging from grades AO to G6. All ODA spending departments were invited which included: Conflict Stability and Security Fund (CSSF), Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA), Department for Energy Security & Net Zero (DESNZ), Department for Education (DFE), Department of Health & Social Care (DHSC), Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DLUHC), Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT), Department for Work & Pensions (DWP), HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), HM Treasury (HMT), Home Office (HO), Ministry of Defence (MOD) and Office for National Statistics (ONS). Departments decide the most appropriate attendees.
The ODA learning days began in 2017 and have been held annually since with around 50-100 attendees from ODA spending departments at the time. It would be of disproportionate cost to identify the exact numbers of attendees and grades as this information was not collected at the time.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the letter of 13 June 2023 from the Minister for Development and Africa to the Chair of the International Development Committee on the provisional statistics on international development for 2022, on what date the HMG Transparency Community of Practice last met; and how many officials, at which grades, attended that meeting.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The HMG Transparency Community of Practice last met on Thursday 29 June, 2023. 24 officials attended the meeting, joining from multiple Official Development Assistance-spending Whitehall departments. Attendees were from the delegated grades. The FCDO does not collate data of the specific grades of individual officials attending the meeting, but attendance is focused on key policy and technical leads for publication to the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) standard within each department.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the letter of 13 June 2023 from the Minister for Development and Africa to the Chair of the International Development Committee on the provisional statistics on international development for 2022, whose responsibility it is to train Government Departments on how to administer Official Development Assistance.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
Departments are responsible for assessing their own Official Development Assistance (ODA) eligibility of spend, correctly administering and reporting ODA. Rules on ODA-eligibility are set by the OECD Development Assistance Committee (OECD DAC), which FCDO consult as required. The FCDO provides assistance and guidance to departments, particularly on the ODA rules and reporting requirements, to ensure compliance with DAC criteria and the standards set by the UK's Code of Practice for Official Statistics.
Every year, all government departments spending ODA are invited to a working level ODA learning day, delivered by the FCDO. The sessions cover the ODA rules, managing the UK's ODA commitment and reporting in line with the ODA rules.
In addition, the FCDO provides targeted support and advice to departments throughout the year as required.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the transitional justice process implemented in Ethiopia following the Pretoria peace agreement; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The Foreign Secretary welcomed the November 2022 peace agreement between the Ethiopian Government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front, when he visited Ethiopia in December. We further welcomed the commitment in the peace agreement to create a comprehensive national transitional justice policy which we hope will be shared with the international community later this year. In parallel, we are providing £4.5 million to help build the capacity of the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission through the UK's Human Rights and Peacebuilding programme, including to enhance its investigative capacity and improve the availability and accessibility of services for survivors of gender-based violence.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much his Department has spent on (a) HIV/AIDS and (b) sexually transmitted diseases' control under the OECD’s DAC code 13040 (i) bilaterally and (ii) multilaterally in each of the last three calendar years for which figures are available.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
Under the OECD's DAC code 13040 the UK spent:
In 2018
i) £11.1 million of bilateral Official Development Assistance (ODA), including £10.1 million from FCDO.
ii) £137.8 million of imputed UK share of core multilateral ODA.
In 2019
i) £8.6 million of bilateral ODA, including £8.3 million from FCDO.
ii) £119.5 million of imputed UK share of core multilateral ODA.
In 2020
i) £9.5 million of bilateral ODA, including £8.4 million from FCDO.
ii) £249.9 million of imputed UK share of core multilateral ODA.
In 2021
i) £5.8 million of bilateral ODA, including £4.5 million from FCDO.
ii) Imputed UK share of core multilateral ODA is not yet available for this year.
UK ODA is published in line with the OECD DAC purpose code standards, 13040 is defined as "STD control including HIV/AIDS" and no further spend disaggregation is available. Please note, total UK core contributions spent in each sector are estimated based on the breakdown of ODA reported by each multilateral organisation.
For further sector spend information, refer to the latest "Statistics on International Development: final UK aid" publication.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much official development assistance has been disbursed under the Rapid Response Facility in each of the last five years.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The FCDO's Rapid Response Facility has activated once in the last five years. This provided £18 million of Official Development Assistance for humanitarian responses to COVID-19 between May 2020 to January 2021.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to Chapter 1, paragraph 4 of the UK Government’s Strategy for International Development, published in May 2022, what steps his Department plans to take to mobilise up to £8 billion of UK-backed financing a year by 2025; and how much of that £8 billion the his Department plans to mobilise from the private sector for each of those years.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
A range of HMG instruments contribute towards plans to mobilise up to £8 billion of UK backed financing a year by 2025 - including our development finance instruments and centres of expertise. We have not set specific private sector mobilisation targets to remain flexible and tailor our offer to the investment needs of our partner countries.