Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to her Answers of 10 December 2018 to Question 199384 on Developing Countries: Abortion and of 21 December 2017 to Question 119743 on Marie Stopes International, for what reason those answers differ on the monitoring of figures; and what steps she is taking to ensure (a) transparency, (b) accountability and (c) trust in that policy area.

DFID takes an integrated approach to our programming on sexual and reproductive health and rights in order to meet a wide range of women’s reproductive health needs. Because these services are integrated it is not possible to disaggregate figures solely relating to safe abortion procedures.

The aim of DFID’s work on sexual and reproductive health and rights is to save the lives of women, reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortions, increase the use of voluntary family planning, and give women control over their own bodies and lives. DFID has robust monitoring and evaluation procedures to ensure UK taxpayers’ money is achieving the results we expect of it across all policy areas. Precise monitoring arrangements vary by project; however progress is always reviewed by DFID on an annual basis and these are publicly available. All of our reviews demonstrate confidence in the quality of Marie Stopes International’s services in developing countries.