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 effect of the proposed reduction in the foreign aid budget on (a) the Voluntary Service Overseas and (b) other charities and schemes that help people volunteer on projects around the world.

The impact of the global pandemic on the UK economy has forced us to take the tough but necessary decision to temporarily reduce our aid budget. We are now working through the implications of these changes for all individual programmes and partners, including Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO).

Volunteers and volunteering organisations like VSO make an important contribution. We have offered VSO a short-term funding extension for the Volunteering for Development programme, while the review process continues.