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 Government's decision to reduce the aid budget on supporting freedom of religion and belief in the global south.

The UK is committed to defending Freedom of Religion of Belief (FoRB) for all and promoting respect between different religious and non-religious communities. Promoting the right to FoRB is one of the UK's human rights policy priorities. On 20 December 2020, the Prime Minister appointed Fiona Bruce, MP for Congleton, as his Special Envoy for FoRB. Mrs Bruce will work with ministers, officials and others to deliver the Government's goal of seeing everyone, everywhere able to have and practise a faith, belief, or no religious belief, in accordance with their conscience. In addition, UK aid is currently supporting the Coalition for Religious Equality and Inclusive Development (CREID) to address key challenges in building religious tolerance in five countries in Africa and Asia, and the FoRB Leadership Network which work in eight countries in Africa and Asia.

We have taken the tough decision to spend 0.5% of our national income on global poverty reduction next year. It is our intention to return to 0.7% as soon as possible. Difficult budget decisions will be necessary; we are running a prioritisation exercise to ensure every pound we spend goes as far as possible and makes a world-leading difference. We will not pre-empt decisions about individual programmes.