Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department makes an assessment of the environmental protections in relation to overseas projects when allocating UK foreign aid to those projects.

In designing new development programmes, Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office staff are expected to identify risks to the environment and climate change and take action to avoid doing harm.

Tackling climate change and addressing biodiversity loss is a high priority for the Government. The Prime Minister announced on 11 January that the UK will commit at least £3 billion of our International Climate Finance to climate change solutions that protect and restore nature and biodiversity over the next five years. We are also acting internationally to secure more urgent action on nature with the Leaders' Pledge for Nature.