The UK aid budget will no longer be linked to changes in the UK’s gross national income, instead being given a fixed budget potentially protecting it from spending by other departments, the Labour Government has confirmed.
The announcement could mark a major shift in the way that UK aid spending is allocated.
In a letter to the Chair of the International Development Committee, Minister Baroness Chapman (above) said the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office will lose its role as the Government’s aid ‘spender and saver of last resort’, meaning that it will no longer need to adjust its budgets to hit a spending commitment if gross national income (GNI) changes or other department’s costs increase.
The Minister also confirmed that bilateral aid spending has been set to meet only existing contracts, suggesting that with a few exceptions there will be no new additional bilateral aid programming in 2025/26.
Exceptions include full aid allocations for Ukraine, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Sudan, and the Overseas Territories.
Sarah Champion MP, Chair of the International Development Committee, said: “I’m very nervous about what these changes signify. Aid programmes deliver benefits over years and decades, not months.
“What UK aid needs above all is stability. Vital programmes for the world’s most vulnerable people must be protected from the ebb and flow of domestic priorities.
“The measures announced could represent a positive step forward. Unshackling aid from percentage targets could protect aid spending from drains on its resources like reckless Home Office spending on asylum hotels at home.
“But we need more information. Will the aid budget rise as well as fall, if income forecasts improve? Which specific programmes are set to be cut? Which areas are high priorities for ministers?
“Until we know, it is impossible to assess whether the Government is serious about its international commitments and the potential risks these changes present.”