Oral QuestionForeign, Commonwealth and Development Office

If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

Tabled: 16 October 2024Answered: 22 October 2024

Asked by

David Taylor

LabourHemel Hempstead

Answering Minister

the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs

Answer from Hansard

Anneliese Dodds

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising this issue. I would be very happy to meet him and other Members, particularly from the Government Benches, where we have a considerable number of MPs with direct experience of international development work. My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary is committed to bringing order to the asylum system. She has taken steps to unblock the backlog of claims. The fact that we lacked a plan to do that previously led to spiralling costs, which hit the international development budget very hard.