Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of proposed reductions in spending on official development assistance on levels of debt-cancellation to heavily indebted poor countries.

Supporting developing countries to tackle unsustainable debt is a priority of this government. Where the UK Government is a creditor, we will fully engage in multilateral negotiations with debtor countries via the Paris Club and G20 Common Framework mechanisms to put their debt back on a sustainable trajectory.

Detailed decisions on how the Official Development Assistance budget will be used will be worked through as part of the ongoing Spending Review process.