§ Sir John StanleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to his answer of 22 June,Official Report, column 322, what was the source or sources of the information that (a) Britain's overseas aid expenditure in 1992 on basic needs was 10 per cent. of bilateral aid and (b) the United Kingdom is better than the average of all donors in that area; and if he will place the relevant statistics in the Library.
§ Mr. Lennox-Boyd(a) The 10 per cent. figure is an estimate based on 1992–93 figures and is calculated as follows:
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Expenditure £ million Water and Sanitation1 25.8 Health and Population1 48.9 Block Grants to Non-Governmental Organisations1 12.8
Expenditure £ million Grant to International Planned Parenthood Federation1 8.0 Basic Education2 15.8 Total 111.3 1Source: British Aid Statistics 1988–89 to 1992–93, a copy of which is available in the Library. 2Estimated 15 per cent. of total education spending. This represents 10.7 per cent. of ODA's bilaterial aid to developing countries. A more useful measure is aid for basic needs as a percentage of aid which is allocable by sector, estimated to be 16 per cent. in 1992–93. Neither estimate includes £150 million of bilateral emergency aid, most of which goes to meet basic human needs in times of crisis. In addition, much of the 46 per cent. of United Kingdom aid which is channelled through multilateral agencies is for basic needs.
(b) The average percentage of bilateral aid for human priorities among 15 development assitance committee countries was 7 per cent. between 1989 and 1991.
Statistics on aid for human priorities can be found in table 4.4 of the "Human Development Report 1994", a copy of which is available in the Library.
§ Sir John StanleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to his answer of 22 June,Official Report, column 253, what was the source or sources of the information given (a) that Britain has one of the best records among the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's development assistance committee donors of allocating aid to the poorest countries and (b) that in each of the past five years between 80 per cent. and 85 per cent. of Britain's bilateral aid which is allocatable by income group has been spent in low-income countries defined as those with an income per capita of less than $765; and if he will place the relevant statistics in the Library.
§ Mr. Lennox-Boyd(a) The source of this information is table 37 of the development co-operation 1993 report published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. This shows that the United Kingdom ranks fourth among DAC donors in the percentage of total aid to low income countries.
(b) This information is taken from Table A2 of "British Aid Statistics 1988–89 to 1992–93", published by the ODA.
Copies of both publications are available in the Library.