§ Lord Juddasked Her Majesty's Government:
What specific action they are taking in the light of their recent review of United Kingdom overseas aid tying policy.
24WA
§ Baroness Chalker of WallaseyODA, with DTI and HM Treasury, undertook a review of UK aid tying policy in 1995 to assess the impact of current practice on the bilateral aid programme and on the UK economy. Copies of the summary report, which was published by ODA on 30th August, have been put in the Libraries of both Houses.
The findings of the report show that there would be very marginal benefits to the UK economy from unilateral untying and somewhat larger benefits from multilateral untying, but that the costs of tying are relatively low. This is because UK goods and services are for the most part internationally competitive and because a significant part even of the bilateral aid programme is effectively untied.
The report made a number of recommendations about ODA's procurement procedures; about how we might approach the negotiations for the next pledging round for the Special Programme for Africa, which begins in December; and about the way we report tied aid to the OECD. ODA is taking action in all these areas. The United Kingdom is also actively supporting renewed efforts in the OECD to encourage greater multilateral untying of development assistance programmes.