Live International Development Questions House of Commons

Good morning and welcome to BBC Parliament 's live coverage of the

Commons. In half an hour, it is the final Prime Minister's Questions

before the big elections tomorrow to the legislatures of Cardiff, Belfast

and local elections in England. After that, the Conservative

backbencher and Maine is asking an urgent question on reforms to the

EU's double asylum system, meaning an asylum seeker has to apply for

asylum in the first EU country he or she enters. That's a system the

European Commission is planning to scrap. The main business in the

Commons today is a Labour led debate on the Government plans to replace

the bursaries that are available for nurses and midwives with tuition

fees for the business followed by a backbench business debate on

education funding in London. Don't forget, join me, Keith McDougall,

for a round of the day in both Houses of Parliament at 11pm

tonight. First, it has questions to the International Development

Secretary, Justine Greening, and her ministerial team. Order, order.

Questions to the Secretary of State for International Development. Mr

Douglas Carswell. Question number one, please, Mr Speaker. Thank you,

six countries opposed action, Zimbabwe, Fiji, unique, Burundi, and

Madagascar. Does aid that include revenue support and is the Minister

not agreeing that such direct Government to Government aid often

actually inhibits good governance, far from encouraging democracy,

encouraging capital Chrissy. He will be pleased that we have curbed

general budget support and its reduced by nearly 90% since 2010,

there is now one programme of general budget support remaining,

which is finishing shortly. I disagree is wrong to work with

governments. In the end, one to tackle corruption is to strengthen

tax revenue authorities so what we need to do is find the balance and

it achieves an impact. Every year the Palestinian Authority gives ?84

million to convicted terrorists serving time in Israeli jails. Out

of a general fund to which this country contributes part of its ?72

million a year in aid to the Palestinians. If there is not

corrupt practice? Ours is an example of good governance and which she

consider following Canada's example of making sure our aid goes to

specific objects in the Palestinian territory? He will be aware the

trust fund we are part of is one that has supported more broadly by

the international community and its yet to be clear whether the new

Canadian Government will change its approach going back to working in

the same way that countries like the UK do, but I should also point out

to him, that supports it alongside direct support on the ground and I

can assure the House there is no UK aid money which gets funded to the

PLO. Thank you, Mr Speaker. The second is that recognise the

important role that committees and civil society organisations play in

holding governments to account in developing countries and will she

assure the House she remains committed to supporting civil

society, capacity building programmes to promote the ability

and tackle corruption? I can get him that assurance. Our work with civil

society is not only important in terms of the impact it can have on

the ground, as he says, on driving accountability but it also was one

of the ways to tackle corruption and finally, a matter for me I care

about, women and girls, it's also vital to change attitude if we make

progress on that, too. Question number two, Mr Speaker. Thank you,

Mr Speaker. With Africa are experiencing unprecedented growth in

its young population, we have petrified young people and job

creation which is not only just good for young Africans but good for

Britain because in the end, we are tackling the root cause of

migration. It aid spending in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and other

neighbouring countries hosting Syrian refugees was increased, could

she outline how that might impact the number of Syrians coming to

Europe? He races are very pertinent question, because the reality is at

the refugee camps that we support in countries around Syria were not

funded and closed, do we think those people would stay there? The answer

is, they wouldn't, they would certainly look to come to Europe and

the irony is, parties like Ukip, who want to cut back on aid

effectiveness of a pro-migration policy therefore, Mr Speaker. Mr

Stephen Twigg. Today at the report is published into Yemen, one of the

issues we highlight is the impact on children and young people including

47% of school-age children in Yemen not being schooled. We'll see in the

House what plans the Government have is to use the forthcoming world

humanitarian summit in Istanbul to focus on education and emergencies

like the situation in Yemen? The crisis in Syria and Yemen shine a

spotlight on an issue I feel has been completely missed out other

humanitarian response for too long. There are 37 million children around

the world out of school bully because they are in areas affected

by emergencies or conflict and the UK has led the way to get children

back into school working with countries and we would like to do

the same in Yemen that, as he will know, the situation in that country

is extremely difficult to get the most basic humanitarian support

flowing in. Thank you, Mr Speaker. We fund the international citizen

service which helps young people from Britain helped their

counterpart in developing countries. Does you join me in encouraging more

people across Britain to get involved? I think that's a really

sensible question for him to ask. We've seen over 20,000 young people

benefit from the International citizen service, giving them a

fantastic experience at a really important stage in their lives and

in the manifesto we committed to topple the numbers of young people

able to benefit from it. Thank you, Mr Speaker. Does the Government

recognise the important role young people having combating global

poverty and will secretary of state welcome the commitment in the SNP

manifesto to continue funding Scotland's development in education

centres and that up the steps and UK governments are doing to promote

global citizenship across the country? I think we recognise the

work of Scottish Government does in Malawi, which is something which is

also very much focused on by the UK, as well, and from my perspective,

that is not just about young people can be advocates for developed and

they are, but there are many other people on the ground to delivering

it and if you look at the response to a bowler in Sierra Leone, it is

young people and communities that did the work to help stability

abilities stay safe -- a bowler. -- Ebola disease. They can be as few as

one held psychiatrist per 1 million people in these areas are how can we

ensure that adequate resources to fulfil medical health requirements

for young people that out in this framework? The disability framework

was something that we brought in over the last couple of years

because we felt we had not focused on this area in development in the

way we should have done and in relation to mental health, in

children, that's an incredibly important area where we have put

more money through great agencies like Unicef to fund psychosocial

support. One of the biggest problems we face is making sure we have

Arabic speakers at the right kinds of skills to deal with the scale of

the challenge. Question number three, Mr Speaker. May I answer

three and five together. Through our presidency of the G8 in 2013 and the

G20, we have bled on strengthening countries tax regimes, tackling

avoidance and evasion. UK overseas territory of agrees to finish our

tax and law enforcement agencies with company beneficial ownership

information. I thank the Minister for that answer but the world's

poorest countries are deprived of $1 trillion every year because of

money-laundering and tax avoidance. Will the Minister call on the

British Overseas Territories to establish a public register of

beneficial ownership headed next weeks anti-corruption Summit in

London? We are light-years ahead of we were and indeed any ambition

expressed by previous administrations. Follow automatic

exchange of taxpayer account information will be available from

September this year, company beneficial ownership will be

available to our tax authorities by June of next year. Thank you, Mr

Speaker. I acknowledge the progress made by devious Government and this

Government on this issue but is now time in advance of the

anti-corruption Summit to require overseas territories and Crown

dependencies to provide public registers and beneficial ownership?

We have advanced a huge amount by agreement and by leadership. Not

having to recourse to compulsion. And now the overseas Territories are

well advanced of many of our trading partners. It's better to proceed by

agreement, much of that information will be available through the

initiative for automatic exchange of benefit owner registers of which 33

countries have now signed up. Will my honourable friend agree with me

that we need to look very carefully at the purpose of this and the

purpose of this is dealing, not just with excessive avoidance schemes and

evasion schemes, but these often mask deeply corrupt and criminal

activities. What has been achieved is an ability for our law

enforcement agencies to get in there and to be able to get that

information and do it without being tipped off by the criminals we are

seeking to find. I pay tribute to the National Crime Agency and the

unit within that it is paid for for tracing this international

corruption, but here's right, huge amounts of revenue are being denied

to the poorest countries in the world and we have to do something

about that. Thank you, Mr Speaker. I think the comments for the

honourable lady is entirely legitimate and the Minister has

applied well and it's also worth pointing out that the added

liquidity which comes about as a result of monies coming in often

from parts of the developing world themselves, into places like the

overseas territories and the Crown dependencies, can lead to a whole

range of project finance initiatives that do benefit many people in the

developing world and it's not quite as straightforward to suggest money

is in tax havens and they don't have a longer-term benefit, particularly

in parts of the world the international develop the agency has

close to its heart. The common reporting standard is vitally

important. Together with the automatic exchange of taxpayer

account information and it's precisely because of that that we

have a pilot running now in Ghana to draw developing countries into this

arrangement. The minister will be aware that tax

avoidance in developing countries costs them three times what they get

in a. So why will the development department not put pressure on

government colleagues to insist that offshore centres like Kamen set up

registers of ownership which are open to the public? We are vastly in

advance of the situation left by previous administrations. We are

advancing by agreement. That information will be available if

countries sign up to the initiative for automatic exchange of beneficial

ownership registers. The UK will be the first country next month to

publish this information. Another way in which the UK canning priest

transparency and lead the world towards -- increased transparency is

to strongly support the extractive industries' transparency initiative.

The last government signed us up for this after too many years in which

we stood aside from it. Can my honourable friend confirm that we

will be leading other parts of the tissue oversees territory in signing

up to this? Those territories that have extracted, we are certainly

pushing his agenda. I regularly meet representatives of the extractive 's

industry to drive forward this initiative. Mr Speaker, 600 million

people in sub-Saharan Africa still do not have access to the

electricity we all take for granted. Progress towards the global goal of

universal access by 2030 is too slow. That is why we have launched

the energy Africa campaign to accelerate the expansion of the

household solar market and make it work for the poorest people in the

world. Does the minister agree with me that solar power can make a real

difference to economic development in places like the set hell, and can

he tell the House, what is DFID doing to assist the roll-out of off

grid solar powered interest to me at a conflict like South Sudan and

Somalia? My honourable friend has a profound understanding of the

region. I can assure him that Somalia is one of the first

countries to have signed up to agreement on the energy Africa

campaign and I hope others will follow. In many African countries,

or Liz still king, and with that comes a lot of corruption -- oil is

still king and it is preventing benefits going to the poorest in

these countries. Can the minister tell the House what DFID is doing to

eliminate corruption, which undermines the very projects he's

talking about such as energy Africa? DFID has an extensive range of

programmes to combat the culture of corruption, particularly in oil

producing states such as Nigeria and an anti-corruption Summit is being

convened shortly in London to address these issues. Can the

minister update the House as to what role Britain can play in encouraging

the private sector to invest in energy infrastructure in Africa?

That is an important point. It is the whole thrust of the energy

Africa campaign. It is about accelerating a market, not dumping

public money on the table. It is about accelerating a market, which

we expect British entrepreneurs and investors to play a leading role in.

A fundamental prerequisite to accessing energy in the poorest

nations in Africa is accessing clean water. What assistance are the

government giving to the many charitable institutions on a

cost-effective basis, who have proven that millions of people can

be delivered clean water in a cost-effective way? It is an

important point about the need to retain ambition in terms of making

it easier to access water. I am delighted to say the UK continues to

play a leading role in the commitment of connecting another 60

million people in this Parliament to water. And NGOs are large part of

delivering on that commitment. Corruption is bad for development,

bad for poor people and bad for business. All of our country

programmes have anti-corruption strategies. DFID funds units in the

National Crime Agency dedicated to investigating money-laundering and

bribery that affects developing countries. It is also bad for

taxpayers, who have a natural concern is busy too much of their

money going to the hands, particularly in Africa, of corrupt

governments and other organisations. What is peer-to-peer lending going

in tackling this issue? There are platforms that are emerging, as he

says, that allowed charitable donations to be sent directly from

an individual in the UK to a remote village in Uganda or an entrepreneur

in Kenya who is seeking to raise money from the UK public directly.

Strong regulation is key. But DFID is now actively working with this

industry to see how this approach can do better. With the Secretary of

State agree that one of the best ways we can help developing

countries with fraud is to make sure there is no fraud and corruption in

the UK? Would she look at whether, in fact, the murderers of Mr magnets

QI have hidden away something like $30 million in the UK, and is that

something she would like to investigate? I will look further

into the case he mentions. But DFID funds and helped establish the

International corruption unit that is now part of the International

crime agency, which is there to make sure we are able to investigate

cases of corruption and fraud that affect the UK system as well as

developing countries. Very dedicated of the Secretary of State. It was,

one might say, a liberal and democratic interpretation of the

question on the paper(!). One of the best ways of reassuring our

constituents that the money is spent wisely is to release as much detail

as possible about where it goes. Because sunlight is the best

disinfectant, can the Secretary of State reinsure me that we would go

further and release even more further data that we have already to

reassure our constituents? We will continue to be a leader in global

aid transparency. Taxpayers can already see the department's

projects in every country on the web. Last month, the department was

again rated as very good in the aid transparency index. Somalia was

recently judged to be the most corrupt country in the world by the

independent watchdog transparency International. And yet in 2014, it

received ?124 million in aid. Does the Secretary of State believe the

entirety of that sum went towards helping the country's poorest? I do,

and DFID have the Syriza controls to manage the inherent risks of not

just Somalia, but many of the countries we work in. We make

extensive use of third-party monitoring so that we can verify

independently that every pound is spent effectively. Mr Speaker, we

are strengthening Palestinian institutions and supporting economic

develop month. Last year, we supported 60,000 children in school

and created thousands of jobs. Results are monitored quarterly.

Just 0.2%, 2p in every ?10 of the 72 million the department spends in the

Palestinian territories ghosted coexistence projects, bringing

Palestinians and Israelis together to the conflict, security and

stability fund. Why will the department not support meat, which

do brilliant work with Palestinian students, or save a child's hard? I

think coexistence and humanitarian work are two pillars on which peace

and a two state solution will be built. We spent ?349 million between

2011 and macro 2015. Last year, ?72 million. There was of course a

difficulty when managing any number of very small projects and

initiatives. However, I do appreciate the importance that the

honourable gentleman draws to this particular need and I am happy to

accommodate him to discuss it. I urge my right honourable friend not

just to maintain our spending on the Palestinian Authority, but even to

increase it? Do we not have an obligation to make a stand against

the moral outrage of the continuing annexation by the Israelis of

Palestinian land? Mr Speaker, the main effort of our interventions in

the Palestinian territories remains to deliver an independent and stable

Palestinian state. I cannot give any indication of finance now. An

announcement will be made in due course. Order. Topical questions.

Andrea Jenkins. Three weeks ago at the World Bank spring meetings in

Washington, we discussed the central role that development plays in

tackling the root causes of migration on a terrace in an

conflict. I should inform the House that no representatives I met

thought it would be a good idea for the UK to leave Europe. Last week in

Kenya, I saw first hand how our poor for refugees and creating

livelihoods for young people is not only the right thing to do for them,

but is also in our national interest, allowing people to stay in

their home region. On my recent visit to India, I saw the fantastic

work being done by the World Health Organisation, Unicef and others to

vaccinate children against polio, which has now been eradicated in

India. What is the government's assessment of the shortfalls of the

global vaccine action plan as set out by the 2015 assessment of the

strategic advisory group? We have seen the group's report and it does

address some key issues and is realistic. It is also worth pointing

out that the no buzz of cases of polio in the world this year is now

down to a handful -- numbers of cases. We are within touching

distance of seeing that terrible disease eradicated from our planet

for the first time in history. Smart, I visited Somaliland in the

one of Africa to see for myself some of the effects of the drought that

has swept southern and eastern Africa. 36 million people are facing

hunger. I met desperate people who need food, water and shelter. What

steps is the Secretary of State taking to ensure that this drought

does not become a famine? This issue underlines the fragility of many

countries in Africa, who whilst on the path to development, face

challenges like El Nino. In Somalia, we have made additional funding

available to tackle this humanitarian crisis and deal with

what she says. Does my right honourable friend agree that the

generous amount of money that the British people give in overseas aid

has transformed the lives of children not only throughout the

world, but in particular in developing countries? Yes, I do. We

have supported 11 million children into school over the last five

years, distributed 46 million bed nets, which has seen malaria deaths

for by two thirds over the last 15 years. We have helped 60 million

people get access to better water, and VSO is delivering a fantastic

project for the international citizens service as well. People are

fleeing was as in developing countries across the globe. Will the

Government now heed the two Kindertransport children and think

again on sanctuary for unaccompanied child refugees from Syria? She will

be aware that all the work the Department for International

Development has done in Syria and in the region particularly focused on

supporting children affected by that crisis. We should also be proud of

the fact that no member state has done more to support refugees

arriving in Europe. She will be aware that we are looking at how we

can continue to work harder on ensuring that we support children

who are in Europe and unaccompanied. David TC Davies. Would my right

honourable friend agree that her commendable efforts to improve

sexual equality across the world would be made easier if

organisations like the Blackburn Muslim Association were not putting

out information to people that women should not be allowed to travel more

than 48 miles without a male chaperone? I am grateful for his

question. I had a look at their website last night and frankly, the

views expressed on it is disgraceful and unacceptable. It has no place in

Britain and is contrary to our British values. I think the

Blackburn Muslim Association should clearly and publicly withdraw those

comments. The Secretary of State may be aware of the brutal murder last

month of LGBT activists in Bangladesh. Last month, one was

hacked to death by Islamist activists. But is she aware that

Amnesty International say that his was just one of four such murders

last month, and can she tell me what we are doing to help the government

in Bangladesh offer more protection to the OG BT community? -- the LGBT

community. We have been concerned to see these terrible murders taking

pace in Bangladesh. It is important that we do continue to work with the

government so that there is freedom of speech combined with the rule of

law and that the perpetrators of these murders are brought to

justice. Does my right Conor Murphy with me that the GDP of this country

reduced by more than 0.7% if we withdrew our investment from various

stability project around the world -- my right honourable friend.

Absolutely. We know that conflict costs billions of pounds of global

GDP every year. We also know that if you were simply to enable women to

be more economically empowered, that would add billions to global GDP

every year. So what we are doing is not as good