Skip to main content
Site logo

Main navigation

  • Home
  • News
  • Meet your MP
  • Events
  • In Parliament
  • Craig's Business Forum
  • Campaign Responses
  • Coronavirus Advice
  • Contact
Site logo

Aid: Parliamentary Scrutiny

  • Tweet

Thank you for contacting me about our aid budget.

Development spending is an important part of securing the UK’s place in the world. Aid has the power to end disease, hunger and extreme poverty, build strong economies and help the world’s most vulnerable people. It also helps us to influence and shape the world around us. Spending 0.7 per cent of our national income on aid contributes to the UK’s reputation as a development superpower and helps deliver a more secure and prosperous UK, while having a life-saving impact on the ground.

Whether it’s stepping up to support desperate Syrian refugees, leading the way in eradicating Ebola and malaria, or giving life-saving aid to stop people dying of hunger in East Africa, UK aid is keeping the UK safe while helping the world’s poorest stand on their own two feet.

I share your pride in the extraordinary work achieved by our aid budget, which is life-saving and life-changing for millions of the poorest people around the world. Between 2015 and 2019, the Department for International Development (DFID) supported 14 million children to gain a decent education and helped almost 52 million people get access to clean water and/or better sanitation. This great work will continue under the newly created Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. The UK is also leading the global effort to save millions of girls from child marriage and Female Genital Mutilation, including the largest single investment to end FGM.

On the Spending Review taking place this year, I am not in a position to pre-empt the conclusions of the review. I understand, however, that Ministers are aware of the suggestions you raise. 

I welcome the Government's commitment to transparency and robust scrutiny of Official Development Assistance expenditure. The structure and remit of select committees is a matter for the House and I have been reassured that the FCDO will reflect carefully on the recommendations of the International Development Committee and the Liaison Committee on this. I will ensure that ministers are aware of the points you have raised and will look forward to considering any motion that may come before the House.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office will be accountable to Parliament for how it spends UK aid. I have been assured that the Government remains committed to full transparency in our aid spending and there will continue to be parliamentary and independent scrutiny of the aid budget. For example, the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) has been told to prioritise producing tangible, evidence-based recommendations to ministers to drive effective overseas development spending. The Foreign Secretary has commissioned a review of the ICAI to make sure ICAI’s remit, focus and methods are effectively scrutinising the impact of UK aid spend, in line with the aims of the new Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. I look forward to seeing the results of this review.

Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.

Craig Whittaker MP

November 2020

 

Campaign Responses

  • Archived Campaign Responses
  • Abortion: Disability-Selective Abortions (EDM 521)
  • Abortion: 'DIY' Abortions
  • Abortion and Foetal Pain: EDM 1340
  • Access to the Countryside
  • Aid: Girls in Crisis
  • Aid: Parliamentary Scrutiny
  • Aid Spending
  • Animal Experiments
  • Animals as Sentient Beings
  • Arms Sales to Israel
  • Arthritis: 'Impossible to Ignore' (Versus Arthritis)
  • Assisted Suicide
  • Asylum Seekers: Various Issues
  • Badger Cull
  • Beer and Alcohol Duty
  • Black Lives Matter
  • Brexit: Food Poverty and UKGT
  • Brexit: Medical Supplies and Scientific Co-operation (including Galileo)
  • Brexit: UK-EU Travel
  • Build Back Better
  • Building Our Way Out (Shelter)
  • Cancer
  • Channel Crossings: Ending People Trafficking
  • China: Persecution of Uyghur Muslims
  • Cladding (McPartland Amendment)
  • Cleaner Air
  • Coronavirus: People with Disabilities
  • Coronavirus: Test and Trace
  • Cycling and Walking: Update
  • Disposable Barbecues
  • Divorce Law Reform: Updated September 2020
  • Domestic Abuse Bill
  • Domestic Abuse: Migrants
  • Domestic Homicide
  • Domestic Abuse: Universal Credit
  • Early Years Funding
  • Environment Bill
  • Evictions of Palestinians in Disputed Territories (EDM 529)
  • Export of Riot Control Equipment to the US
  • Fox Hunting
  • Fuel Duty and the Future of Petrol and Diesel
  • Gender Recognition Act: Update
  • Girls in Crisis (Plan International)
  • Green and Fair Recovery
  • HS2 and the Environment
  • Heat Pumps
  • Homelessness: Crisis and Centrepoint
  • Homelessness: Social Housing (Shelter)
  • Horse Tethering
  • Human Rights Defenders
  • IVF
  • Immigration: Detention, Visas and Other Issues
  • Immigration Health Charge
  • Immigration: Points-based System
  • Israel: Peace Agreements with Bahrain and the UAE
  • Jagtar Singh Johal
  • Legal Aid: Asylum and Immigration Cases
  • Local Electricity Bill
  • Local Housing Allowance/Shared Accommodatio Rate
  • Microchipping Cats
  • MPs' Pay Update
  • Nazanin-Zaghari Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori: Update
  • Neonicotinoids
  • NHS Pay
  • NHS 'Privatisation'
  • Off-payroll Working (IR35)
  • Oceans: Global Action
  • Onshore Wind Energy: Update June 2020
  • Overseas Operations Bill
  • Peat Burning
  • Planning for the Future: CPRE and Other Campaigns
  • Planning for the Future: Woodlands
  • Pregnancy and Maternity Redundancy Bill
  • Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons Treaty and Trident
  • Radiotherapy 4 Life
  • Rail: Policy and Investment
  • Rape Crisis Services and Domestic and Sexual Abuse
  • Reception Baseline Assessment (Primary Schools)
  • Rivers - Plastic Pollution
  • School Breakfast Bill
  • Sea Blasts
  • Sewage (Inland Waters) Bill
  • Social Care
  • Social Care, Key Workers and the National Living Wage
  • Social Housing
  • Sunday Trading
  • Sunscreen and VAT
  • Supertrawlers and Sustainable Fishing
  • Support for People with Terminal Illness
  • Trade Bill: Anti-genocide Amendment
  • Trade Deals: Farming and Food Standards
  • Trade Deals: Food Standards
  • Trade Deals: NHS - New Clause 17 and Lords 11
  • Trade Deals: Parliamentary Scrutiny
  • Trophy Hunting Update
  • Transport Investment (#transformtransport)
  • Trespass Laws and the Right to Roam
  • Two-wheel Powered Vehicles
  • UK Internal Market Bill
  • UK Internal Market Bill: International Law
  • Visa-free Work Permits for Touring Artists
  • Whipping of Race Horses
  • Wildlife Licensing
  • Yemen: UK Involvement (Updated)
  • Youth Services

Craig Whittaker MP for Calder Valley

Footer

  • About RSS
  • Accessibility
  • Cookies
  • Privacy
  • About Craig
  • Campaign Responses
  • In Parliament
Site logoThis website is funded by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) for the purpose of assisting Craig Whittaker MP in the performance of their Parliamentary duties.
Copyright 2021 Craig Whittaker MP for Calder Valley. All rights reserved.
Powered by Bluetree