Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of linking the 0.7 per cent spending target to the financial year instead of the calendar year to help make the budget easier to manage.

The 0.7% target is a UN target which the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) reports adherence to through its Official Development Assistance (ODA) statistics. ODA is the official international standard used to measure aid flows and is measured on a calendar year basis to allow international comparison of donor effort, since fiscal years vary across donor countries.