§ Lord Juddasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether, in the light of the press release of 28th June claiming that overseas aid has been held in the past year at 0.31 per cent. of GNP compared with the UN target of 0.7 per cent. and a UK level of 0.51 per cent. in 1979, they will now revise upwards their expenditure plans as explained to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, which indicate that, with aid frozen at £2,150 million in 1997–98, the proportion may in that year fall to near 0.27 per cent.
§ The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Chalker of Wallasey)OECD figures for 1994 do indeed show that UK net official development assistance was 0.31 per cent. of GNP, above the 0.29 per cent. average for all OECD donors.
The size of the aid budget in future years will be determined in the next and future Public Expenditure Survey rounds.