§ Mr. Canavanasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is the total aid budget in the financial years 1983–84 and 1984–85; and how much of this is allocated to (a) multilateral aid, (b) bilateral aid and (c) the Commonwealth Development Corporation.
§ Mr. RaisonThe gross aid programme for 1983–84 is £1,110 million and for 1984–85 £1,174 million. The gross aid programme comprises voted expenditure and certain items of attributed expenditure, essentially the United Kingdom share of overseas aid financed from the European Community budget. Taking account of both voted provision and attributed items, the multilateral: bilateral split in 1983–84 is estimated at £480 million:£630 million. Similar figures for 1984–85 are not available at this stage due to the unallocated section—£110 million—of the Overseas Aid Vote. Excluding this, the split would be £468 million multilateral:£596 million bilateral.
The bilateral figures include provision for the Commonwealth Development Corporation of £37 million in 1983–84 and £39 million proposed in the Main Estimates for 1984–85.