Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, with reference to her article in the Daily Mail, entitled Too much of your money is simply stolen or squandered, published on 13 September 2016, in what areas of her Department's spending funding is being stolen or wasted.

DFID has a zero tolerance approach to fraud and has a wide range of robust measures and controls in place to protect UK aid and ensure we maximise value for money. My department works in challenging areas and operates a comprehensive risk management framework which assesses and responds to the risk of fraud at every stage of the project cycle. The Counter Fraud Section responds firmly to any allegation of fraud recovering funds wherever possible. We expect our partners to account for losses from their own funds to minimise the impact on UK taxpayers and the recipients of aid.