Speeches by Macdonald.

“Given how many conflicts there are in the world and how much need there is for spending, do you think that you are going to have similar levels of underspend this year?”

“I was asking more historically, because we had seen that under the previous Government, with that aid really falling. Were people saying that we should be investing more in this area and it just was not happening?”

“Sometimes it makes you question, because it is mainstreamed gender, whether anyone is actually looking at aggregate impact on women and girls across all the cuts. We can leave it there for now.”

“Just to go back to the question of multilateral and bilateral spending and your priorities, obviously we make our decisions as a country, but we are going to see a change of Administration in the US, which is the largest donor by volume. Admittedly, less of its aid goes to multilateral aid, but President-elect Trump ha…”

“I have two specific questions on two areas of funding. I will do them together just for time. The 2023 statistics show that the bilateral ODA for humanitarian support fell by roughly 20% from 2022. That is where we have seen big cuts. What was the justification for that cut? Also, we know that gender equality is meant …”

“I pay tribute to the hard-working NHS staff in Norwich and in Norfolk as a whole. Norfolk County Council has used artificial intelligence to identify more than 1,000 people who are risk of being admitted to hospital because of falls this Christmas. Does the Minister welcome that use of AI, and will she expand on how we…”

“Thank you very much for seeing me. I have proposed this debate, and we have the support of 22 Members from a range of parties across the House. I think I would have got more with a bit more time, but you know how it can be sometimes. We are seeing armed conflict ramp up across the globe, and that has heightened the ris…”

“Moving on to longer-term funding, which you have touched on, the budget was additional funding for 2025-26. Can you expand on long-term plans in progress to secure the World Service’s financial future?”

“I think that we will come back to that subject later. You have touched on this a little bit. In terms of the additional funding that you have, is the current focus really on sustaining the World Service’s current activities, or are there plans for future development programming? Are you able to look at what extra money…”

“We heard earlier from the BBC that, when a crisis happens, it has to move money around within its budgets to be able to cover some of that. We have just announced a £15 million package for Syria, and I recognise that that is for urgent humanitarian need. We have heard about the value of information in terms of accessin…”

“We raised a question earlier, and I appreciate that Baroness Chapman was not there at the time, and neither was Mr Davie. Just going back to the decisions around the withdrawal of services that we referred to earlier—Patricia, you may be able to answer these, since you might have been there at the time—is there a proto…”

“I appreciate that some of this would be for the World Service, but, in terms of performing any long-term impact assessments of the withdrawal, is that fully a decision for the World Service or would the FCDO be pushing for that, particularly when it is taxpayers’ ODA money that is in question?”

“Moving on to longer-term funding, which you have touched on, the budget was additional funding for 2025-26. Can you expand on long-term plans in progress to secure the World Service’s financial future?”

“I think that we will come back to that subject later. You have touched on this a little bit. In terms of the additional funding that you have, is the current focus really on sustaining the World Service’s current activities, or are there plans for future development programming? Are you able to look at what extra money…”

“We heard earlier from the BBC that, when a crisis happens, it has to move money around within its budgets to be able to cover some of that. We have just announced a £15 million package for Syria, and I recognise that that is for urgent humanitarian need. We have heard about the value of information in terms of accessin…”

“We raised a question earlier, and I appreciate that Baroness Chapman was not there at the time, and neither was Mr Davie. Just going back to the decisions around the withdrawal of services that we referred to earlier—Patricia, you may be able to answer these, since you might have been there at the time—is there a proto…”

“I appreciate that some of this would be for the World Service, but, in terms of performing any long-term impact assessments of the withdrawal, is that fully a decision for the World Service or would the FCDO be pushing for that, particularly when it is taxpayers’ ODA money that is in question?”

“Yes.”

“I hope that Norfolk will be part of the devolution priority programme so that we can unlock the powers and funding that we need on areas from transport to housing. May I ask the Minister specifically about the role of key cities? Norwich is a key national and regional economic power, but it needs devolution to fully un…”

“T6. In Norwich, we have many amazing businesses such as the Norwich Glass Company, Café 193 and Great Eastern Model Railways that I visited recently. One of the challenges that they, the Norfolk chamber of commerce and the Federation of Small Businesses have raised is attracting skilled staff. Will the Secretary of Sta…”