Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether proposals for projects using Official Development Assistance funds are evaluated by civil servants within his Department.

All BEIS projects funded through Official Development Assistance (ODA) are appraised by BEIS officials to assess quality, value for money, deliverability and alignment with Official Development Assistance (ODA) rules and strategic priorities. Projects funded from BEIS International Climate Finance (ICF) are appraised through detailed business cases, which go through BEIS approval processes that provide scrutiny and challenge before final sign-off at Ministerial level.

For the two research and innovation funds, Newton Fund and the Global Challenges Research Fund, in line with the Haldane Principle which protects the independence of government-funded research, all research programmes are also evaluated by external expert groups with strong assurance processes and robust independent expert peer review processes.