To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps his Department has taken to improve the UK's position in the UN Commitment to Development Index. (217028)

The Department for International Development (DFID) supports the Centre for Global Developments' Commitment to Development Index (CDI) and sponsored the 2007 launch event at which I spoke. The UK is ranked 9th out of the 21 countries assessed in the index, an improvement of three places on the previous year.

DFID works across Government, through the European Union and the OECD and internationally to promote policy coherence for development (which the CDI measures). Our achievements and success are set out in DFID's 2007 Annual Report. This is available in the Library of the House and on the DFID website:

www.dfid.gov.uk.

An example includes the establishment of a Joint Trade Policy Unit with the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform to ensure coherence between our aid and trade agendas.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how the European Commission's aim to co-ordinate all external policies that interwine with development objectives affect his Department's relationship with other board aid organisations, as referred to in his Department's most recent departmental report. (217041)

I refer my hon. Friend to the answer that I gave on 26 June 2008, Official Report, column 491W.