Aid Budget

HC Deb 19 March 1979 vol 964 cc1089-91

31. Mr. Hooley

asked the Minister of Overseas Development what estimate she has made of the extent to which the aid budget will be underspent or overspent in the current financial year.

The Minister of State for Overseas Development (Mrs. Judith Hart)

My present expectation is that this year's aid programme will be fully spent. However, final accounts will not be available until the end of July.

Mr. Hooley

Is my right hon. Friend aware that that is a very welcome reply? Can she say briefly what are the main constraints on ensuring that the aid budget is fully spent year by year and whether any techniques are being adopted to ensure that that happens in future years, as, apparently, it will this year?

Mrs. Hart

There are major constraints beyond our control. For example, the IDA drawings and those on European Community aid have sometimes been much less than we had expected. If the drawings for which we had budgeted are less than we had supposed, the position sometimes becomes rather difficult. We have increased bilateral expenditure which we expect to offset such shortfalls on our multilateral programmes.

Mr. Blaker

Will the Minister explain why the latest figure for firm commitment under the aid programme has risen suddenly to £756 million, which is nearly £300 million higher than the average figure for the previous three years? Is she deliberately committing as much as possible in anticipation of losing the next election, or is there another explanation?

Mrs. Hart

The hon. Gentleman misunderstands—perhaps deliberately—the way in which the aid programme is planned. The commitments do not relate to expenditure in the next financial year. They can relate to expenditure two, three or four years in advance. We have been making certain that we offset the lower drawings on multilateral programmes and we have made certain that the money voted to us by Parliament was, as Parliament wished, fully spent.

Mr. Grocott

Does my right hon. Friend agree that underspending is sometimes caused by the fact that the Government are rightly concentrating their attention on giving more help to the poorest and that, in order that projects may be identified, we need more people in the villages and local communities to identify the most worthwhile projects? What steps is she taking within her Department to ensure that there is sufficient specialist staff in the countries concerned?

Mrs. Hart

I am sure that the result of some of the discussions that I had recently with the Select Committee of which my hon. Friend is a member will emerge in due course. It is generally known that we wish to have on the ground in countries for which we have substantial bilateral programmes enough people who can identify, administer and monitor projects and make sure that all is going well. There was, necessarily, a period following the new strategy of aid to the poorest in which there was a certain difficulty in identifying the sort of projects that would fulfil the aims of the strategy. I think that we have now overcome that difficulty.

Mr. Luce

Does the Minister agree that there are certain items in the aid programme that, on any judgment, should not appear in a British aid programme? I cite, for example, the hidden employment subsidies, amounting to £60 million, in the provision of ships to Vietnam and India and the provision of money to countries such as Mozambique which are not pursuing policies in regard to Rhodesia which are in accordance with British policies.

Mrs. Hart

It depends how one identifies British policies. There may be a difference between us on that. There is a later question about Mozambique. On the first point raised by the hon. Gentleman, I can see no problem. Indeed, we are fulfilling the aid strategy that Parliament has agreed. We are concentrating our aid upon those who need it most. I do not see what the criticism is, unless the hon. Gentleman is affected by hon. Gentlemen behind him who would wish that there were no aid programme at all.