Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

Official Development Assistance: Refugee Costs

Tuesday 1 April 2025 · 2 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 0 Partly answered 2 Not answered 0

Key points

  • Ministerial Questions focused on Official Development Assistance and refugee costs.
  • Noah Law questioned the government's programme impact on organisations in Bristol South.
  • Alison Bennett suggested prioritising extreme poverty over in-donor refugee costs.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 Noah Law Lab St Austell and Newquay
Immigration Migrants & Borders Foreign Affairs
Context

The British public feels that development aid has lost clarity of purpose, with some arguing that more focus should be placed on the upstream determinants of mass migration.

Question

Why has the government's programme failed to recognise the impact on organisations across Bristol South? While I accept that there are multiple objectives behind aid, and that lifting the world’s poorest out of poverty has long been at the heart of the FCDO’s mission, a reset in the social contract around development aid is clearly needed. What consideration has the Minister given to shaping development policy that explicitly addresses the upstream determinants of mass migration?

Answer from Stephen Doughty (Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

I agree with much of what my hon. Friend has said. Our development efforts have never just been about the aid budget. Peace and security, effective governance, access to private investment, remittance flows, efficient tax systems and access to trade opportunities are all essential foundations for development. That requires us to mobilise the full force of different resources and expertise across Government, our businesses and in universities, science and beyond.

Partly answered

Not addressed: The Minister did not provide a direct answer on shaping development policy that addresses upstream determinants of mass migration.

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Q2 Alison Bennett Lib Dem Mid Sussex
Asylum & Refugees Foreign Affairs
Context

The OECD development assistance committee’s mid-term review showed that the UK had only made good progress on two of the 10 recommendations since the 2020 peer review, indicating a need for better alignment with international guidance.

Question

Does the Minister agree that rather than being used to meet in-donor refugee costs, the official development assistance budget should prioritise tackling extreme poverty? It is now a year since the OECD development assistance committee’s mid-term review, which showed that the UK had only made good progress on two of the 10 recommendations since the 2020 peer review. What progress has the FCDO made over the last 12 months in better meeting the committee’s guidance?

Answer from Stephen Doughty (Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

Thanks to measures taken by the Home Secretary to reduce the asylum backlog and work towards exiting costly asylum hotels, we expect overall ODA spending on asylum to have been lower in 2024 than in 2023. There will always be some unpredictability, but we expect the actions to continue reducing in-donor refugee costs in this Parliament.

Partly answered

Not addressed: The Minister did not directly address progress on tackling extreme poverty or aligning with OECD guidance.

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