HC Deb 07 February 2002 vol 379 cc1060-1W
Mr. Simon Thomas

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much of the UK's total international aid budget is spent on basic education; and if she will make a statement. [33519]

Hilary Benn

In 2000–01 around £130 million of DFID' s bilateral programme was spent on basic education (9 per cent. of the bilateral total). This shows an increase from 1998 when such expenditure represented 5 per cent. of the bilateral programme. However these figures do not fully represent our effort in this area as they exclude contributions to NGOs (both national and international) and multilateral organisations, none of which can be disaggregated to this level of detail.