Sector consultation on DFID-FCO merger and Integrated Review

Motion Text

That this House notes that the Government has repeatedly misrepresented consultation of the development sector on the Department for International Development's response to the covid-19 crisis as equating a formal mechanism for consultation on the DFID-FCO merger or Integrated Review; further notes that consultation on the UK’s international covid-19 response has never been a formal mechanism for consultation on wider government policy; and calls on the Government to urgently commit to meaningful engagement and consultation with the development sector on the new Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office and the strategy that defines it (the Integrated Review) so that aid and development expertise informs the new department’s structure and priorities and that poverty reduction and sustainable development remain UK aid's primary objectives.