Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will deliver the commitment made by the Prime Minister in September 2019 to 12 years of quality education for all girls by (a) protecting the ODA allocation for education from budget reductions, (b) increasing that allocation to 15 per cent of UK ODA and (c) allocating £600 million of funding from the public purse to the Global Partnership for Education.

As set out in the Integrated Review, this Government's commitment to stand up for the right of every girl to 12 years of quality education is unwavering. The Foreign Secretary has set out seven core priorities for the UK's aid budget this year in the overarching pursuit of poverty reduction. Girls' education is one of these priorities.

The impact of the global pandemic on the UK economy has forced us to take the tough but necessary decision to temporarily reduce how much we spend on Official Development Assistance (ODA). We will temporarily move to a target of spending 0.5% of Gross National Income (GNI) on ODA, rather than 0.7%. This is a temporary measure, and we will return to 0.7% when the fiscal situation allows. Details of the UK's next contribution to GPE will be announced in due course.