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‘Mealy-mouthed’ Government response to spending aid in UK report misses the point

22 May 2023

An International Development Committee proposal to put the UK’s aid budget beyond the reach of the Home Office by ringfencing it for the people in the poorest countries has been summarily dismissed by the Government in a two-page letter from the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, John Glen MP.

In response, the Chair of the Committee says the UK Government has ‘missed the point’. The Committee’s call followed the publication of Government figures which demonstrated a huge wealth transfer from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office to the Home Office to pay for hotel accommodation for refugees. Government figures now show that the Home Office spent an eye-watering £3.7 billion of aid in 2022, mainly on hotel accommodation.

MPs said the UK Government’s approach to spending funds gathered from taxpayers and earmarked for Official Development Assistance (ODA) across the world is incompatible with the spirit of the international rules on aid spending to which the UK subscribes. Most countries stick to the principle that the ODA budget is for spending that “promotes and specifically targets the economic development and welfare of developing countries” rather than meeting costs in their own countries.

Shortly after the publication of the International Development Committee’s report, the Government’s independent aid watchdog warned that departmental spending of the UK’s ODA budget on supporting refugees and asylum seekers in their first 12 months in the UK was ‘poor value for money’ and ‘an inefficient way of providing humanitarian assistance.’ The Independent Commission for Aid Impact urged Ministers to consider an upper limit on how much of the UK’s aid budget can be spent on in-country refugee costs - or to set a minimum level of spending on ODA by the FCDO.

Chair's comment

The Chair of the International Development Committee, Sarah Champion MP, said: 

“Ministers have completely missed the point here. This pathetic, mealy-mouthed response does not address our core recommendation that the UK’s aid budget should be used to alleviate the conditions faced by people living in the world’s poorest countries.

“It appears that the Chief Secretary to the Treasury is now making foreign policy – policy which goes against the grain of the relaunch of the Government’s development agenda, recently set out by Development Minister, Andrew Mitchell MP.

“We are not the only people to call out the mounting evidence of the effects of recent aid cuts which are eroding critical health programmes, education initiatives, climate work and humanitarian responses, while the Home Office is using the UK’s aid budget to pay hotel bills. Need we remind the Treasury that the D in FCDO stands for Development?

“At a time when the UK’s commitment to allocate a percentage of our own national income to development priorities has been reduced, the value of every British pound matters more.”

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Image: Crown Copyright