Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to increase access to clean water globally.

Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)

Improving access to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) is a FCDO global health priority, forming a core part of the UK's approach to ending the preventable deaths of mothers, babies and children. Since 2015, the UK government supported over 60 million people to gain access to clean water and/or sanitation. Our support to Sanitation and Water for All reinforces water sector leadership, accountability and collaboration in over 70 countries. Through engagement in the G7, the G20, UN summits and the WASH in Healthcare Facilities Taskforce we ensure WASH is included in efforts to prevent future pandemics and to reduce anti-microbial resistance.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent discussions she has had with her counterparts in other countries on progress towards universal access to (a) water, (b) sanitation and (c) hygiene in healthcare facilities.

Answered by Amanda Milling - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

Improving access to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) services, including in healthcare facilities, is a global health priority for the FCDO. It forms a core part of the UK's new Ending Preventable Deaths of mothers, babies and children strategy published in December 2021, and is critical to our wider global health objectives.

The Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development office continues to engage with international partners, including through the G7, G20 and the Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) forum, to ensure WASH is included in efforts to prevent the spread of infections including COVID-19, to prevent future pandemics, and to reduce the threat of anti-microbial resistance. We will also continue to pursue these objectives through our membership of the "WASH In Healthcare Facilities" international taskforce, through our bilateral programming such as our innovative hand hygiene partnership with Unilever, and through our core multilateral funding including to the World Bank and the World Health Organisation.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much her Department spent on water resilience projects in (a) 2019-20 and (b) 2020-21; and what the projected spending is for those projects in 2021-22.

Answered by Wendy Morton

UK Official Development Assistance (ODA) spend is recorded in line with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's Development Assistance Committee coding. This does not specifically record water resilience. Yearly UK bilateral ODA spend on water and sanitation, including water resilience, can be found in the respective Annual Statistics on International Development publications: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-on-international-development.

Following the recent spending review and autumn budget, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has started the process of allocating sectoral funding. This process should provide some more clarity on sector specific funding over the coming months.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much and what proportion of Official Development Assistance the UK has been allocated (a) bilaterally and (b) multilaterally to water, sanitation and hygiene in each of the last five years.

Answered by Wendy Morton

Yearly UK bilateral ODA spend on Water Supply and Sanitation can be found in the respective annual Statistics on International Development publications: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-on-international-development. The statistics for 2020-2021 were published at the end of September 2021 and the figures for 2021 - 2022 will be released in the same publication next autumn. Additionally, the UK government is undertaking a three-year spending review which is expected to be announced at the Autumn budget at the end of October 2021. This should provide more clarity on future sectoral spend for the next three years.

UK Multilateral ODA spend is not published by sector because the funding is often provided flexibly to finance a wide range of policy objectives, or it is pooled with funding from other donors and therefore difficult to attribute to one country. The link above breaks down ODA funding to multilateral agencies up to 2020.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much Official Development Assistance her Department plans to spend (a) bilaterally and (b) multilaterally on water, sanitation and hygiene in 2021-22.

Answered by Wendy Morton

Yearly UK bilateral ODA spend on Water Supply and Sanitation can be found in the respective annual Statistics on International Development publications: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-on-international-development. The statistics for 2020-2021 were published at the end of September 2021 and the figures for 2021 - 2022 will be released in the same publication next autumn. Additionally, the UK government is undertaking a three-year spending review which is expected to be announced at the Autumn budget at the end of October 2021. This should provide more clarity on future sectoral spend for the next three years.

UK Multilateral ODA spend is not published by sector because the funding is often provided flexibly to finance a wide range of policy objectives, or it is pooled with funding from other donors and therefore difficult to attribute to one country. The link above breaks down ODA funding to multilateral agencies up to 2020.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, which multilateral organisations will receive Official Development Assistance for water, sanitation and hygiene in the financial year 2021-22.

Answered by Wendy Morton

The UK supports the Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) partnership to help national governments increase access to water, sanitation and hygeine services (WASH); we fund the WHO-UNICEF hosted Joint Monitoring Programme which tracks progress against water and sanitation global targets; and we support the Global Water Partnership to promote climate resilient WASH and water governance.

In addition, we have incorporated our direct WASH funding to the World Health Organisation into the new flexible core voluntary contribution package, which supports a number of important global health objectives including WASH. UK contributions to multilateral development banks (including the World Bank and Asia and Africa regional development banks) also supports the water, sanitation, and hygiene work of these multilateral organisations.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 20 July 2021 to Question 34078 on Overseas Aid: Water, which of the UK-funded clean water projects will have funding reduced or ceased as a result of the UK official overseas aid budget being reduced from 0.7 per cent to 0.5 per cent.

Answered by Wendy Morton

The economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic has required the UK government to make the difficult decision to temporarily reduce Official Development Assistance (ODA) from 0.7% to 0.5% of GNI. Global Health, which encompasses water, sanitation and hygiene remains a priority for the UK.

Yearly UK bilateral ODA spend on Water Supply and Sanitation can be found in the respective annual Statistics on International Development publications: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-on-international-development. The statistics for 2020 will be published by the end of this year.