Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his officials in his Department instructed representatives of UKRI to discuss planned budget reductions with stakeholders and recipients of Official Development Assistance funded projects after the Spending Review in November 2020 and the 10 March 2021.

All Government Departments with responsibility for spending Official Development Assistance took part in a cross-government process, led by my Rt. Hon. Friend the First Secretary of State, to review in detail how ODA is allocated between key priorities - recognising the difficult economic circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ministers across multiple departments engaged in these discussions as part of the process. BEIS ministers regularly meet with UKRI on allocations and other issues.