Press releases

UK aid to China falls by up to 90% since 2019 but still lacks transparency

21 Mar 2024

UK aid to China has fallen by up to 90% since 2019, but the aid watchdog continues to raise concerns about the transparency of the remaining spend in a report today (Thursday 21 March). The Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) finds that aid engagement with China across all of government dropped from £80 million […]

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UK’s £11.6bn climate finance commitment at risk as aid resources stretched

29 Feb 2024

ICAI review finds £11.6 billion target will be challenging to meet, with 55% to be spent in the last two years of the pledge. The government “moved the goalposts” by changing the way meeting the target is calculated, and reviewing existing spend to include all eligible ICF. Altogether this amounted to an additional £1.724 billion, of […]

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Weak coordination and oversight limit effectiveness of £500m Blue Planet Fund

30 Nov 2023

ICAI review of the government’s marine fund launched prior to COP26 finds ‘severe’ risks including lack of cross-government coordination and coherence of the portfolio – resulting in duplication in some areas and delivery gaps in others.  In order to launch rapidly and distribute funding early, Defra re-assigned some existing projects rather than focusing on needs […]

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Brexit, COVID-19 and budget reductions put extraordinary pressure on UK aid since 2019

13 Sep 2023

Watchdog’s review of the four years since current Commission was appointed looks at how UK aid has performed in turbulent times. The impact of external shocks was compounded by frequent changes of political leadership and government’s own decisions to merge DFID and FCO and reduce the aid target. The merger brought much disruption but so […]

Read more on Brexit, COVID-19 and budget reductions put extraordinary pressure on UK aid since 2019


Home Office asylum costs could no longer be counted as aid under Illegal Migration Act

6 Sep 2023

The Illegal Migration Act, if implemented in full, could mean that much of the Home Office’s current spending on support for asylum seekers in the UK would no longer be eligible to come from the aid budget overseen by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), a new analysis finds today (Wednesday 6 September). The […]

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Government rejects watchdog’s recommendation for a cap on aid spent supporting refugees in the UK

11 Jul 2023

The government has rejected a recommendation from the aid watchdog for a cap on the proportion of the aid budget that can be spent on refugee costs in the UK. The official response to the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) rapid review of UK aid funding for refugees in the UK, which the government […]

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