§ Mr. Robert B. Jonesasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will give a table setting out the total United Kingdom overseas aid to the African continent for each year since 1975 in cash and constant prices.
§ Mr. RaisonThe information requested is as follows:
Gross public expenditure on aid and bilateral aid to African continent Current and constant 1984 prices (using the United Kingdom GDP deflator) Year Current prices Constant 1984 prices £000's £000's 1975 79,198 207,303 1976 107,336 244,860 1977 116,472 233,299 1978 176,698 318,493 1979 230,661 362,980 1980 256,965 337,652 1981 266,758 313,524 1982 247,161 271,093 1983 235,538 245,438 1984 265,769 265,769
§ Mr. Gorstasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he has any plans to increase United Kingdom aid to underdeveloped countries for 1985–86 by an amount sufficient to match increases made by other European countries and to meet the United Nations' target of 0.76 per cent. of gross national product.
§ Mr. RaisonThe allocation for 1985–86 remains as published in the 1985 White Paper on Public Expenditure at £1,130 million.
§ Mr. Gorstasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what was the United Kingdom's total expenditure on overseas aid as a proportion of gross national product in 1984–85; and what information he has as to the equivalent figures for the Netherlands, France and Norway, respectively.
§ Mr. RaisonThe OECD publish figures of donors' aid performance on a calendar year basis. The figure for the United Kingdom in 1984 expressed as a percentage of784W GNP was 0.33 per cent. For technical reasons there are fluctuations in donors' aid performances unrelated to changes in actual aid expenditure. In aid spending terms the figure for 1984 was 0.35 per cent. This was the same as for 1983 and is close to the OECD average of 0.36 per cent. Equivalent figures for the Netherlands in 1984 are 1.02 per cent., France 0.77 per cent. (including aid to the Dependencies) and Norway 0.99 per cent.
§ Mr. Gorstasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is his latest estimate of the outturn on overseas aid expenditure for 1985–86; and what change in real terms this represents in comparison with the outturn figures for 1984–85.
§ Mr. RaisonThe sum available for spending on the aid programme in 1985–86 is £1,205 million. This compares with a provisional outturn figure of £1,165 million in 1984–85. What change in cost terms this would represent depends on the rate of inflation over the rest of the year.