Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, for what reason his planned timescale for temporarily reducing Official Development Assistance to 0.5 per cent GNI has changed.

The UK economy is 11.3% smaller than last year and undergoing the worst contraction for 300 years. The deficit this year is projected to be double its peak during the financial crisis. Against this backdrop we have been forced to prioritise public spending, including temporarily reducing the ODA commitment from 0.7% of GNI to 0.5%. We will return to spending 0.7% on ODA as soon as the fiscal situation allows.