Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what plans she has to improve oversight of the UK Aid Strategy across Government; and what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the recommendation by the National Audit Office on her Department improving its assessment of overall effectiveness of ODA expenditure and its coherence across Government.

In line with commitments in the UK Aid Strategy, DFID and Her Majesty’s Treasury (HMT) have introduced robust monitoring, governance and oversight arrangements to ensure value for money of all of Official Development Assistance (ODA) spend, including through setting up an ODA Senior Officials Group, which meets regularly and reports to Ministers. However, it is important to note that individual government departments have direct responsibility and accountability for their own ODA spend.