PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
(20 January 2025)

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of the proportion of overseas development assistance that is spent on in-donor refugee costs.

Asked by:
Wendy Morton (Conservative)

We will use our development spending to achieve better outcomes as part of a coherent international approach, with a strong focus on poverty reduction and accelerating progress on the Sustainable Development Goals.

The Home Secretary is committed to ensuring asylum costs fall and has already acted. This includes taking measures to reduce the asylum backlog and end the use of expensive hotels. We expect these plans to create more space in the Official Development Assistance (ODA) budget to spend on our international development priorities overseas. The first meeting of the re-established ODA Board, chaired by myself and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, will focus on in-donor refugee costs.

Answered by:
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