Speeches by Dodds.

“I am not going to spike anything. I certainly understand her thinking. I understand what she is focused on. I know who she has been speaking with. I am very grateful indeed to those Committee members who have given up their time, and to the many experts who have spoken with her. It really has been a valuable exercise, …”

“As I said, the most important thing is to show that we can make that change, that we have made it before and that we are making it right now. If we just set out figures of money, as I said, I really do not think that helps, but as a corollary to this we have to be absolutely focused on ensuring that taxpayers’ money is…”

“I have been having discussions with Baroness Shafik throughout the whole process, so obviously I have seen a considerable amount of material from her already. I hope that we would be able to both have that private discussion that was mentioned before and share how we are going to take this forward with the Committee as…”

“Yes, I have had a number of discussions with counterparts at USAID on a number of issues and I am very grateful to them for their time. Of course, the UK has worked with a whole variety of US Administrations of every political stripe. We have always done that to work together, and that will continue, but at the same ti…”

“The ambition is within our manifesto. It is a manifesto commitment that we reach it as fiscal circumstances allow. Those fiscal rules were set out by the Chancellor; she set them out as the means to ensure that we would be genuinely growing our economy, but, above all, ensuring that our fiscal circumstances are more st…”

“Yes, which were their tests.”

“We have been clear that the fiscal rules are only one expression of Government’s policy. We are working really hard to create the conditions so that we can grow our economy and so that we can deliver across a whole number of areas.”

“We have changed a number of rules in different areas, but we will always do that in a way that is fiscally sensible.”

“To be fair, yes, it is what I am saying. However, the point I was trying to make was that, if those changes are not made, this will not just be an issue for my Department.”

“That is such a good question. It is something that I am really passionate about as well. When people realise that back in 1980, about 50% of the world lived in extreme poverty, and now about one in 10 people in the world live in extreme poverty, they can see that we can make progress together. When the UK works in part…”

“Yes, six months.”

“I will be delighted to set them out in just one moment. If you will permit me, Chair, I just want to say, first of all, what a huge privilege it is for me to be in front of you. I really mean that. Doing this job is a dream come true for me. It really has been such a privilege, so I am very excited to be having this se…”

“That is such an important question and one that I have been thinking about really deeply. We need to take the right decisions for the medium term, but for the long term as well. That does mean making sure that we get that balance right. For example, it is very important that when it comes to multilateral funding, we en…”

“The reason why I am smiling is that I have had so many amazing experiences since I came into my role. One of the most moving was when I was in Indonesia with a gathering of female politicians from all over Indonesia of all kinds of backgrounds. One of them said, “I am really pleased that the UK has a Minister for Devel…”

“As you probably heard in the previous session that you had with officials, because of the decisions that have been taken by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury in discussion with us, at year-end Darren was able to say—subject to the agreement of Parliament, as with any such financial measure—that the FCDO will receive …”

“Well, we really are determined to ensure that we can get to 0.7%. That is a manifesto commitment.”

“No, we are seeking to ensure that, where possible, we see continuity within the bilateral programme. The reason for that is because of what I talked about before. There was a lot of damage created to relationships. In some cases, we saw staff having contracts terminated and that kind of thing, but also a direct impact …”

“It is certainly not the latter; that is for sure. I would genuinely say to members of this Committee, “Judge us on what we deliver”. You will see that we have been delivering on all those areas.”

“I would love to attend the conference in person. I do not think we have sorted out our exact arrangements around it, but we are certainly preparing for that Paris conference right now. I have had preliminary discussions around it and the work that we will need to undertake with partners. You and other committee members…”

“Thank you so much for that question. Minouche Shafik has been focused on issues that I know have been of considerable concern to the Committee around capability and capacity, really making sure that we are doing all that we can to restore our development reputation, as I mentioned. She has been working at pace on that.…”