Skip to main content

Aid

Volume 199: debated on Thursday 28 November 1991

The text on this page has been created from Hansard archive content, it may contain typographical errors.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is his estimate of the funds which return to the United Kingdom for every £1 spent on (a) bilateral development aid and (b) multilateral development aid.

On the basis of the figures for procurement now provided by the multilateral agencies, I estimate that for the period 1982–89 average procurement of British goods and services amounted to £1·40 for every £1 contributed by the United Kingdom to multilateral aid funds. Because the origin of goods and services purchased under the untied element of the bilateral aid programme is not recorded, it is not possible to make a similar estimate for bilateral aid.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list the proportion of the bilateral aid budget fully and freely available for worldwide procurement, and untied, between the years 1979 to the present day.

The proportion of the gross bilateral aid programme which was untied in the years 1979–1990 (the latest year for which figures are available) is as follows:

United Kingdom untied aid as a percentage of total United Kingdom gross bilateral aid 1979–1990
YearPer cent.
197919·6
198026·0
198128·9
198225·1
198328·9
198434·8
198533·4
198625·3
198726·2
198829·7
198928·0
199028·7