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…”

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

“I would make two remarks on that important question. First of all, I have been incredibly impressed to see the impact that UK development and aid is having around the world. Since I started six months ago, I have been to South Sudan, Ethiopia, Malawi, Zambia, Jordan, the West Bank and Indonesia, to see projects that we…”

“Ultimately, official development assistance must be used to relieve poverty. That is the criterion against which it must be spent. That is set very clearly in law. It is very important that the UK focuses on ensuring that we are enabling countries to develop jobs and growth, including the poorest countries. That is ver…”

“I do not believe that is correct, when we take into account multilateral spending and other forms of ODA spending, and not purely bilateral. The classification of countries is something that is contested. We hear this message from small island developing states in particular, from some of the Caribbean countries, but a…”

“We will keep working towards a system for the public finances that is far more robust for the future, one where we really can fund our priorities at the level that we want to see. That £22 billion black hole has inevitably had a significant impact. As I said, I am pleased and encouraged by the fact that we have seen th…”

“Our view remains that it must not go into force, that there is a very clear mandate for UNRWA and that its work is absolutely necessary. We do not believe that a clear alternative has been set out, even if there were somehow a justification for that, and we do not believe that there is. An alternative has not been set …”

“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…”

“I will make two comments on that. First of all, there is considerable work going on within the Department on this. I mentioned before that ODA board. Officials have been working together towards that to ensure that we really can use it as a mechanism to effectively scrutinise those costs and to make sure that they are …”

“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…”

“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 …”

“Thank you very much for raising that. I really do believe that it is fundamental. I do not want to labour the point that I made before, but we have to recognise that, unless women and girls are put at the heart of development policy, we simply will not have an effective development policy. The FCDO has committed that a…”

“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 …”

“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.…”