Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the oral Answer by the Minister of State (Development and Africa) of 31 January 2023, Official Report, column 203, what the evidential basis is for the statement that more than a third of all development programmes now contain disability-inclusive activities; and with reference to the Written Statement of 30 March 2023, FCDO Programme Allocations, HCWS705, whether he plans that that figure will be maintained in 2023-24.

As at the end of 2021, almost 35 per cent of FCDO development programmes contained deliberate disability-inclusive activities.

FCDO development programme teams are required to make an assessment of whether each programme undertakes deliberate disability-inclusive activities. The assessment is based on the criteria laid out in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC) disability inclusion policy marker handbook.

We have committed to tracking the number of programmes marked as containing disability-inclusive activities in the disability inclusion and rights strategy 2022-2023, published in February 2022.