4. When her Department plans to publish the findings of its bilateral and multilateral aid reviews. (905511)
The reviews will ensure that we allocate our budget to the right places and in the right ways based on solid evidence, translating our UK aid strategy into a set of delivery plans for DFID that are ambitious in driving development and tackling poverty, but also deliver value for money. That is in our UK national interest. We are planning to publish the outcome of the bilateral and multilateral aid reviews in the early summer.
May I, too, congratulate the Secretary of State on her recent announcement? In a time of great political uncertainty, surely these reviews should not be delayed any further, so may I ask her what impact she thinks Brexit will have specifically?
Part of our work has been through the European development fund, so work is now under way to understand where the end point of Brexit is and, critically, the transition plan in the meantime. That work is under way, but I emphasise that overwhelmingly our work is not through the EDF, and that, of course, is unaffected.
15. I am proud of our international aid record, but we have to take the public with us. Does my right hon. Friend agree that if the target were to apply over a longer period, thereby allowing for annual variations to reflect need, taxpayers could have the greatest possible comfort that they were seeing value for money? (905522)
Value for money comes from how we take decisions and monitor their impact in the Department, and less from how we structure the budget. We have a commitment to investing 0.7% of our gross national income in international development each year, and we are going to stick to that.
Will the Secretary of State reassure the House that following the withdrawal of our overseas aid portion given through the EU, the absolute percentage that we spend on the world’s poorest people will be maintained?
This Government came in on a manifesto of maintaining the 0.7% commitment. Under the coalition Government that we led, it was brought in and achieved for the first time. We legislated for it, and we stand by that.