PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE
Official Development Assistance - 6 July 2020 (Commons/Commons Chamber)
Debate Detail
Contributions from Wendy Chamberlain, are highlighted with a yellow border.
Wendy Chamberlain
North East Fife
15:06:13
James Heappey
The Minister for the Armed Forces
The Ministry of Defence is forecast to spend £5.58 million on official development assistance in 2020.
15:06:38
Wendy Chamberlain
Back in April, the International Development Secretary commented that there should be regular reviews at ministerial level of what different Departments were doing with their official development assistance. In the light of the upcoming merger between the Department for International Development and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, will the Minister set out what conversations he has had with the Foreign Secretary about ensuring that any official development assistance programming from his or other Departments is transparent and subject to scrutiny?
James Heappey
The hon. Lady is exactly right. Development and security sit hand in hand and, as such, knowing that a review is ongoing, we are looking at exactly where development activity is essential to the security function that our armed forces are seeking to provide overseas. We will be making the case for that spending to remain unchanged.
Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.