Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether the Official Development Assistance budget will be increased to 0.7 per cent of Gross National Income in the event that that income rises.

Spending 0.7 per cent of our national income on development assistance is a manifesto commitment and is enshrined in law. The principle of the 0.7 per cent commitment is that the Official Development Assistance budget rises and falls depending on the value of Gross National Income (GNI), and so the budget would increase if GNI increased.