Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the publication entitled Global Britain in a competitive age: the Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy, CP 403, published on 16 March 2021, what assessment he has made of the effect of the reduction in Official Development Assistance funding to International Planned Parenthood Federation's women’s integrated sexual health programmes on the Integrated Review's plans to improve global health.

The UK is proud to defend universal access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights which is fundamental to the empowerment of women and girls. Global health, including sexual and reproductive health and rights, is a top priority for the FCDO. The Integrated Review sets out UK priorities on global health, including support to health systems 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 how much we spend on Official Development Assistance (ODA). We will temporarily move to a target of spending 0.5 per cent of Gross National Income (GNI) on ODA, rather than 0.7 per cent. This is a temporary measure and we will return to 0.7 per cent when the fiscal situation allows. We are now working through the implications of these changes for individual programmes, including on the Women's Integrated Sexual Health Programme (WISH). No decisions have yet been made on individual budget allocations.