[ad_1]
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has said that ministers do not need to pass new laws for Britain to miss the target of spending 0.7% of gross national income on foreign aid because existing legislation allows them to do so.
The government’s interpretation of the law may deprive conservative rebels of an effective parliamentary opportunity to try to stop aid cuts.
Sunak announced in the spending review that the foreign aid spending commitment would be cut to 0.5%, effectively reducing the aid budget of £ 15bn by a third in two years.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today show on Thursday, he said that existing law securing the 0.7% target passed in 2015 allows ministers to temporarily shelve the target.
He said: “The existing legislation that we have for the aid objective specifically allows for the fact that it may not be possible in certain circumstances to meet the aid objective and that is contained in the existing legislation as is.”
The Conservative Whips, knowing that only 40 Conservative MPs would be needed to vote to fulfill the manifesto’s commitment to stick to the 0.7% target, are eager to ensure that the rebels do not have effective parliamentary leverage to overturn the decision.
Ministers rely on the flexibility built into the key clauses of the 2015 International Development (Official Development Assistance Target) Act of 2015. The law states that if the secretary of state cannot achieve the target of 0.7 %, must report to parliament and explain why the target has not been met and, if applicable, refer to economic circumstances and any changes in gross national income, tax circumstances, in particular the possible impact of target achievement in taxation, public spending and loans.
Then the secretary of state is required to set the steps they will take to reach the goal in the next year.
Sunak at the BBC declined to set a date when the target would be reset, saying only that the change was not permanent and that spending would go back up to 0.7% “when fiscal circumstances allow.”
Arguably, the law requires a commitment to return to 0.7% in one year, which could provide leverage for conservative rebels to demand that ministers restore the target in 2022. The legislation emphasizes that the responsibility of the minister is only before parliament, blocking some legal options such as judicial review.
Sunak said: “Yesterday we made the decision to prioritize people’s jobs, public services and help the country overcome the coronavirus. I think it is a choice that the British people will support. “
The press releases that laid out the main implications of the 2015 bill at the time of its actual passage gave the impression of a stronger duty than the wording of the law provides.
The then Department for International Development said: “The law imposes on the secretary of state a duty to ensure that the UK meets the 0.7% target in 2015 and every subsequent calendar year.
“Accountability for meeting the 0.7% target is before parliament, rather than the courts. The secretary of state should arrange for independent assessment of the extent to which UK ODA [official development assistance] It represents good value for money. The Secretary of State must include in each annual report a statement of how he has fulfilled this duty ”.
