Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the upcoming G7 summit being held in Cornwall between 11 and 13 June 2021, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that its commitment to increasing the number of girls who have access to 12 years of education will be maintained following reductions in aid spending from 0.7 to 0.5 per cent of GNI.

2021 is a year of UK leadership on the world stage, including on girls' education. In May, G7 Foreign and Development Ministers endorsed two new, global, SDG 4 milestone targets of getting 40 million more girls in school, and 20 million more girls reading by age 10 in the next 5 years. The Prime Minister will also be using the G7 Leaders' Summit to call on G7 Leaders to re-endorse our girls' education targets and declaration in the Leaders' Communique, and make pledges to support the Global Partnership for Education as we look ahead to the Global Education Summit next month.

As announced by the Foreign Secretary on 21 April, the FCDO will also spend £400 million bilaterally on girls' education this year. This very substantial investment of UK ODA is only one of our tools in achieving our ambitions.