International Development (Reporting and Transparency) Bill

My Lords, I join the noble Baroness, Lady Whitaker, in congratulating Tom Clarke on his tireless work inside and outside Parliament to advance the transparency and accountability that we so desperately need in international development. I also join her in welcoming our two newly ennobled colleagues who are to break their duck, so to speak, tonight. I particularly welcome my noble friend Lord Cotter, who has been a colleague and a friend in the other place for many years. I know he will make a valuable contribution to our proceedings in this Chamber. As Tom Clarke emphasises, at the heart of his Bill is an annual report to Parliament on progress in aid and millennium development goals, on accountancy, on accountability and on transparency. I welcome the Bill as a tool—a weapon—to address the woes of unfortunate failures in international development aid policy in past years. However, it is only one tool in the toolbox, only one weapon in the armoury. The Make Poverty History campaign last year reminded us of the challenge facing the developed world in empowering poor countries to reach the development goals. The challenge was starkly underlined in Africa. I declare my usual interest as a vice-chairman of the Africa All-Party Parliamentary Group and vice-chairman of a number of other African country groups. As the Secretary of State, Hilary Benn, said, nearly half the population of sub-Saharan Africa lives on less than a dollar a day. Some 40 million children are not at school and, of those who are at school, far too often the girls do not complete their education. They are taken out of school at the end of the primary phase because culturally their place is considered to be at home, rather than being educated. Some 250 million Africans do not have access to safe water or to sanitation and each year, millions die from HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria and water-borne diseases. Of the G8 commitments to Africa made at Gleneagles last year, very little—perhaps inevitably—has so far been delivered on the ground. Real change will, I think, take decades. I believe that it would be a mistake to concentrate entirely on aid to lift the grinding poverty that the continent has suffered. Despite decades in which its resources have been ravaged, Africa remains a rich continent. The key to bringing millions of citizens in Africa out of poverty and out of despair is not simply to rely on aid, but to aid Africa in developing its own economy and to develop its trade between African countries as well as with the industrialised world. A critical aspect of taking the citizens of Africa out of poverty is to break the stranglehold of corruption: corruption in their governments, corruption in their financial and commercial institutions and corruption in their trading partners, including here in the United Kingdom. That is why we should welcome this reporting and transparency Bill, as a step towards enshrining accountability and the crime of corruption in our own laws. As I said before, to a degree the Bill provides a tool to help to tackle corruption, but other more powerful legislative tools are coming down the track to complement this Bill once Parliament has had the opportunity to deliberate them. Some noble Lords may recall that in a debate in this Chamber on 19 June, on the Africa All-Party Group’s report on corruption, The Other Side of the Coin, I drew attention to the need for a corruption Bill to address the shortcomings in United Kingdom legislation in the battle against corruption. This Bill cannot address those shortcomings, and that is not its fault. It is a short Bill, which will hopefully have a rapid passage through this House. By definition, it cannot address the wider issues. I am grateful that, within three days of that debate, the Government published their response to the recommendations made in that report. In particular, I welcome the announcement of the appointment of the Secretary of State for International Development as an anti-corruption champion. I look forward to seeing the gentleman in that role. I am sure it is a capable fit. I also welcome the fact that the Government have agreed to find funding for a new international corruption task force. It is all to the good. But we still need progress with legislation such as a corruption Bill; for example, that prepared by a well known NGO, Transparency International, in draft form. It has taken a lead by helping with the preparation of a ten-minute rule Bill introduced in another place. It is ready, as noble colleagues and the Minister will know, to be presented as a Private Member’s Bill in this House should the need arise. The positive elements of the Government’s response to the Africa group’s report are welcomed. But it remains to be seen whether it will lead to the degree of effort required to prosecute corruption legislation in its entirely. For example, the United Kingdom is one of 14 parties to the OECD anti-bribery convention, under which not a single prosecution for foreign bribery has been made in recent years. That is surprising, given the United Kingdom’s substantial involvement in sectors and countries with a high risk of corruption. It is not enough for the Government to say that it remains committed to introducing a corruption Bill in due course. Earlier this year, DfID took the initiative of consulting widely on its new White Paper on development. In response, TI has submitted a comprehensive paper, setting out how anti-corruption measures could improve the effectiveness of our development policy and assistance. The Bill is, in many ways, a scene-setter for an approach supported by the TI submission and many others. The draft corruption Bill sets out the actions that can be taken in legislative form. Finally, while I welcome Tom Clarke’s Bill and genuinely wish it speedy progress into law, I urge the House to note and consider that much more remains to be done before we have a comprehensive box of tools to tackle corruption in development aid and other funding.