International Development (Reporting and Transparency) Bill

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Edinburgh, West (John Barrett), and I congratulate him on his contribution in sponsoring the Bill. It is nice to hear the Liberal Democrats, as well as the Conservatives, praising the Chancellor, I must say. I know that time is pressing, so I shall be brief. I warmly congratulate my right hon. Friend the Member for Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill (Mr. Clarke) on introducing the Bill. As my right hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle upon Tyne, East and Wallsend (Mr. Brown) said, its great strength seems to be that it would ensure that an annual progress report to Parliament appeared in a consolidated form, covering the contribution towards the millennium development goals not just from the Department for International Development, but from the Government as a whole. It would maintain the momentum of progress towards the 0.7 per cent. target and fulfil our wider international obligations—not least because it would commit future Governments to report in a similar way. It is important that the report the Bill would require should be accessible and readily comprehensible by the general public, because the jargon and complexity of mechanisms and agreements in trade, debt, aid and development can all too easily alienate a concerned public, who cannot always see what is or is not being delivered by international agreements, perhaps especially in relation to multilateral assistance. The aim should be to make this a document that a concerned public want to read because it shows clearly where progress has been made and where there is more to do. I am pleased to have the new Oxfam headquarters in my constituency, and I know that Oxfam strongly welcomes not only the benefits that the Bill would achieve for public accountability and debate in this country, but the notice it would give to developing countries of their aid flows for the forthcoming three years, as well as the independent monitoring arrangements it would put in place. I draw hon. Members’ attention to clause 2, which relates to reporting on the coherence of the United Kingdom’s contribution to poverty reduction and sustainable development. It would give the Secretary of State some discretion on further matters to be added to the annual report. I very much hope that, whether under this clause or other clauses on millennium development goal 8 or transparency or effectiveness, some further important issues may be included in the interests of parliamentary and public scrutiny, and of understanding. For example, Oxfam has pointed to the value of also reporting on the conditions applied by the Government and multilateral agencies through which they contribute. There is certainly scope to do that, and DFID has pledged to provide information on conditions through its website. That could therefore be usefully incorporated in the report. As we are all aware, aid is not just a question of money. Much of DFID’s international support is technical assistance, and there is a strong case for integrating technical assistance, as well as other aid, within the report to give a full picture of what the UK is doing. Last, and very relevant to integrated and comprehensive reporting, are the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development targets for aligning and harmonising donor countries’ aid programmes and practices. Measures of progress towards harmonisation, such as how many missions and how much country-analytic work DFID undertakes jointly with other donors, deserve to be reported. We need international performance indicators for this international issue. I would urge that those points be further considered by the Government as and when the Bill becomes law. This is a great step forward, and my right hon. Friend the Member for Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill was characteristically modest about his role and what the Bill would do—it is enormously important. We all want the millennium development goals to be achieved, and we all want to help the poorest people in the poorest countries to transform their life chances.