My right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, made a statement on 10 May, setting out actions the Government are taking to tackle the problem of so-called vulture funds. As he made clear, we are deeply concerned by the extent to which aggressively litigating creditors deplete the resources of developing countries, that might otherwise be used for productive social expenditures and poverty reduction. We are also concerned that these creditors are free-riding on the efforts of the international community, including through the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative and the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI), to cancel the debts of the world’s poorest countries.
Along with debt relief, the UK provides direct bilateral development assistance and multilateral development assistance, including through the EU, to the world’s poorest countries. These countries also have other sources of revenue—not least from domestic taxation. In these circumstances, it is not possible for us to quantify a loss to the UK public purse. However, I share my hon. Friend’s concern about the diversion of the limited resources of these countries away from productive social expenditures.