Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the impact of the reduction to the Official Development Assistance budget on the UK’s security; and if she will publish that assessment.

The Foreign Secretary is the Secretary of State with overall responsibility for the UK ODA budget and assessing the impact of any reductions.

Regarding the Home Office ODA budget allocation, the Home Office’s non-discretionary ODA in–donor spend on refugees and asylum seekers in the UK will not be changed, in alignment with our legal obligations.

Between our ODA and CSSF allocations we have maintained the vast majority of our other ODA funded activity. Much of our work overseas seeks to support host country law enforcement agencies to develop their capabilities in preventing the spread of illicit commodities and illegal movement of people. The Home Office also has overseas law enforcement work which is funded from core non-ODA budgets. Some of our ODA funded activity was planned to stop at the end of FY 20/21 as part of conventional multi-year programme planning. In some cases the activity overseas has been scaled back.

The interventions the Home Office are making with our ODA budget are crucial to addressing developing countries needs to become more open societies, strengthen public intuitions and facilitating economic development. This is in turn will support the UK’s ability to counter serious and organised crime and illegal migration in the future.