Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what estimate he has made of the proportion of the aid budget spent on (a) protecting endangered species, (b) projects in Commonwealth countries and (c) promoting international trade in the latest period for which figures are available; and if he will make it his Department's policy to increase the proportion of spending in these areas.

DFID has committed over £600 million funding between 2011 – 2021 to conserve nature and wildlife. Nature-based solutions that protect the environment and biodiversity will be a priority for the UK’s increased investment in International Climate Finance of at least £11.6 billion between 2021/22 and 2025/26, announced by the Prime Minister at the United Nations Climate Action Summit 2019. DFID’s focus is on protecting biodiversity and ecosystems as a whole and we do not disaggregate our spend by species.

Commonwealth developing countries are major recipients of UK ODA. In 2017, they received around £3.57 billion (equating to around 25% of overall UK ODA), of which £1.96 billion was UK bilateral ODA and £1.61 billion was imputed UK share of multilateral ODA.

In 2017, the UK spent around £1.5 billion on Aid for Trade, as determined by OECD figures.

Decisions on the levels of future UK ODA will be determined in the context of the next Spending Review.