Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to his letter of 15 August 2019 to civil society organisations on the Government’s planning for Brexit, what estimate he has made of the number of contracts not underwritten and which are eligible to be underwritten.

DFID has received a large number applications from civil society organisations (CSOs) for financial assurance and we underwrite them on a case-by-case basis. Eligibility is based on criteria set out by the Government’s Technical Notice titled, ‘The government’s guarantee for EU-funded programmes if there’s no Brexit deal’, which can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-governments-guarantee-for-eu-funded-programmes-if-theres-no-brexit-deal

Applications are accepted until 31 October, and DFID regularly updates UK CSOs to ensure as many eligible programmes as possible are captured. Following his letter, the Secretary of State for International Development met with many of them on 27 August. DFID Ministers and officials will continue this dialogue ahead of Brexit.