International Development (Reporting and Transparency) Bill

My Lords, I welcome the opportunity to speak for the first time in this House on a Bill that relates to two of the greatest challenges facing us—tackling world poverty and doing so in a way that can be environmentally sustainable. I concur wholeheartedly with the comments made by my noble friend Lady Whitaker in presenting the Bill to us today. I am also very glad that the Minister participating in this debate will be my noble friend Lady Royall of Blaisdon. She and I go back quite a long way, having both worked together within the Labour group of MEPs in the years immediately after direct elections in 1979. Indeed, I sometimes reflect that she and I could write an entertaining memoir of those days, although I hope and expect that she is fully occupied with her ministerial duties and therefore will not be contemplating such a project in the near future. I come to the House having spent 18 years in another place. Some colleagues in the new intake into your Lordships’ House have said to me that they think experience will prove most useful. I hope it will be useful, although I must say that so far I have been struck by the differences between the two Houses and the need for me as a new girl to learn the procedures in this House. I have also been struck with the ease in which I have managed to get lost in this end of a building I thought I knew well, and by the number of new rooms, corridors and staircases I have discovered in this magical Palace of Westminster. Furthermore, I have been struck by the warmth and friendliness of the reception that I have been met with, which I think is common to all new Members. I come here with, as we all have, views about the composition of this House. Indeed, as a Commons Member of the Joint Committee on Lords Reform set up in 2001, I probably have got more form on this issue than people think I should have. However, I have always been a strong believer in the important role of the second Chamber and the need to have a second Chamber that can prompt the primary Chamber to think again. I remember, as will many ex Ministers, with pleasure the evidence sessions I had with committees in this House. It was ““with pleasure””, except for the few occasions—I hope they were few—when I turned up feeling not entirely well prepared and being reminded yet again of the expertise and collective wisdom that there is in this House, to which I would like to pay tribute. Like many Members who have come from another place, we are often anxious to retain our old constituency links in our choice of title. My constituency was named Gateshead East and Washington West. That title confused many of the good voters of that area, so I settled very happily for the formal title of ““Quin, of Gateshead””, which gives me a public association with the town and the local authority, which has done so much for its inhabitants in recent years, especially in the spectacular cultural projects with which it is now nationally associated. There is a link between Gateshead Council and the Bill, because Gateshead Council was one of the authorities which took a lead in the establishment of an organisation called Council Aid in the 1980s. That was not just about channelling aid to communities in developing countries; it was also about council officials sharing their administrative knowledge and expertise with their counterparts in developing countries. I know that many people in Gateshead Council who were involved in that initiative are very committed to the goals of the Bill. As a supporter of the governing party, I am delighted publicly to be able to applaud the Government’s record on aid and development from the establishment of DfID in 1997; through the work of its two dynamic Secretaries of State; the increased level of aid; the commitment to the 0.7 per cent target; and to the pioneering work on debt relief and the initiatives taken within the G8 and the European Union. As my noble friend Lord Morris has just mentioned, the Prime Minister this week set up the Africa Progress Panel, which we all hope will have every success in its work in the coming months. I am glad that the Government respond positively to this Bill, which I feel is important in a number of ways. First, it obliges the Government to report annually not just on the quantity but on the quality of their aid and to do so in an open and transparent way. It also calls for government to respond consistently and in a co-ordinated way. I was very much struck in a debate on corruption in Africa held in this House a couple of weeks ago, to which the noble Lord, Lord Chidgey, referred, by the stress on the importance of having co-ordinated government policy on such issues. As those of us who have served in government know, co-ordination is a day-to-day challenge to governments, but it is vital if policies are to be effective. The Bill also stresses the importance of the millennium development goals, to which I believe we are all very attached: the goals of tackling world poverty, of promoting the education of women, and of doing so in an environmentally sustainable way. The Bill is capable of responding to public interest. There is massive public interest on this issue, as we have seen in the success of the Make Poverty History campaign and the genuine and generous public response to events such as the Asian tsunami. The public rightly want to know that the money they contribute is well spent. They also want to know that money given to government aid programmes is well spent. I believe that the Bill can also be a catalyst or stimulus for other groups and organisations. I hope that it will encourage European Union countries which at present do not have such a reporting mechanism at present to adopt one. I am sure that it will be welcomed by recipient countries—especially those where in the past there have been concerns about the quality of aid, including many of those mentioned in the Africa debate a couple of weeks ago, which are democratising and making their own procedures more open and accountable than they were. That is an important stimulus for them. It is also important as an example to non-governmental organisations, many of which are fully committed to their own accountability charters, because they know that the public who give to their organisations want to be assured that the money they give is well used. The Bill can be a good example to the private sector as well in its dealings with developing countries and the need to operate in a more open and transparent way than has been the case. Clause 6 refers to the partnership principle to which I believe the Government are committed in their relationship with developing countries in administering aid for the future. I am glad the Bill stresses that and brings it to the forefront of its composition. All in all, the clauses are very helpful and worthwhile. In conclusion, the Bill is an excellent example of the initiative that private Members in both Houses can take. I will certainly be very happy if, by supporting the Bill in my first contribution to this House, I can help to ensure its smooth legislative passage and to ensure that it reaches the statute book as soon as possible.