Latest news with #JennyChapman
The Independent
15-07-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Slashing of UK's international aid more responsible than Trump's overnight cuts, minister claims
The UK's deep cuts to international aid will be carried out in a 'responsible and careful' way – not the 'overnight' slashes conducted most obviously by nations such as the US – the government has claimed. Charities and international aid experts have lined up to decry the UK cuts, first announced in February, which will bring spending from 0.5 per cent to 0.3 per cent of gross national income (GNI). A report also published on Tuesday by the Independent Commission for Aid Impact found UK aid spending overseas could fall to as low as 0.24 per cent once spending at home on asylum accommodation was factored in. But development minister Jenny Chapman has told MPs that 'not all aid cuts are the same and I think the way that we've done it… is slowly and in a considered way'. 'I would contrast that to the way that others have done it, where medications just stop being distributed overnight, where I know of warehouses with vaccines that there's no way of distributing,' Baroness Chapman said. 'That's a real problem and that will have a huge impact.' In the US, Trump cut roughly 80 per cent of foreign aid spending virtually overnight, in a move that could cause 14 million extra deaths by 2030. The speed of the cuts caused chaos as clinics closed, access to lifesaving medicines was disrupted and health staff didn't know if they could turn up to work one day to the next. Baroness Chapman added that the withdrawal of the United States from global health funding was proving a 'huge problem' but that, 'it isn't possible for us to backfill that capacity sadly'. Baroness Chapman also confirmed during the session of parliament's international development committee that a world-leading programme to tackle antimicrobial resistance was being cut and suggested a project giving millions access to contraception was under question. The scale of the UK cuts means they are expected to hit virtually all programmes. Even when it comes to the global vaccine alliance, Gavi, of which the UK has been a major champion and is now the biggest funder, its contribution this year fell by £400 million. Baroness Chapman said antimicrobial resistance and the risk of another pandemic were the two biggest threats facing the UK's health security, but public health and prevention minister Ashley Dalton confirmed during the session that the Fleming programme, which supports countries in Africa and Asia to monitor and prevent antimicrobial resistance, has already been cancelled. Antimicrobial resistance happens when antibiotics are used too much or incorrectly, causing germs to evolve resistance against them and creating dangerous illnesses that can't easily be treated with the available drugs. Resistant bug strains can cross borders and the phenomenon is estimated to kill a million people a year. Asked about a programme to family planning access and information to 2.6 million women and girls across West and Central Africa, Baroness Chapman said she was 'looking at it'. The minister has previously signalled that specialised programmes for women and girls may be hit hard by the cuts.
Fibre2Fashion
15-07-2025
- Business
- Fibre2Fashion
UK relaxes import rules, boosting retailers & developing nations
British consumers and businesses are set to benefit from a new package of trade measures unveiled on July 10, designed to simplify imports from developing countries and support global economic growth. The measures are part of an upgrade to the UK's Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS), which aims to lower prices on everyday goods while promoting trade with some of the world's poorest nations. They will give UK consumers greater access to competitively priced imports, such as clothing. The UK has upgraded its Developing Countries Trading Scheme to simplify imports and boost trade with developing nations. The reforms include relaxed rules of origin, supporting tariff-free access for goods like garments from countries such as Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Retailers like M&S and Primark are set to benefit from lower costs and stronger supply chains. Key reforms include simplified rules of origin, allowing more products from countries such as Nigeria, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines to enter the UK tariff-free — even when made using components from across Asia and Africa. Countries like Bangladesh and Cambodia will continue to enjoy zero tariffs on goods such as garments and electronics, British Embassy Phnom Penh said in a release. 'The world is changing. Countries in the Global South want a different relationship with the UK as a trading partner and investor, not as a donor. These new rules will make it easier for developing countries to trade more closely with the UK. This is good for their economies and for UK consumers and businesses,' said Minister for International Development Jenny Chapman. Retailers such as M&S and Primark are expected to benefit significantly, gaining improved access to competitively priced imports and more resilient supply chains. Over £16 billion (~$ 21.52 billion) worth of UK imports have already benefitted from tariff savings under the DCTS since its launch in June 2023. 'We welcome the changes to the DCTS rules of origin for garments which remove the potential cliff edge when a country graduates from Least Developed Country status. This will help us to maintain our existing supply chain strategy in our key sourcing markets in Asia, such as Bangladesh and Cambodia,' interim chief executive at Primark, Eoin Tonge said. The changes also include new support measures to help exporters in developing nations meet UK import standards, alongside efforts to ease trade in services like digital, legal, and financial sectors. These steps are part of the UK's broader 'Trade for Development' agenda and its newly published Trade Strategy, aimed at growing the economy, supporting households, and strengthening international partnerships. The announcement was made at a joint reception hosted by the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) and the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), attended by British business leaders and foreign ambassadors. 'UKFT welcomes these additional changes to the Rules of Origin under the DCTS, which will bring real benefits to the fashion industry in the UK and in DCTS countries,' added Adam Mansell, CEO, The UK Fashion & Textiles Association. 'We warmly welcome the UK's Trade Strategy. The new rules allowing greater regional sourcing for garments while retaining duty-free access to the UK are a game-changer,' stated Yohan Lawrence, secretary general of the Joint Apparel Association Forum (JAAF), Sri Lanka. Fibre2Fashion News Desk (HU)
The Guardian
20-06-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
£5bn UK overseas aid cuts cannot be challenged in court, say government lawyers
Cuts of £5bn to the UK overseas aid budget cannot be challenged in the courts, government lawyers have said, even though ministers have no plan to return spending to the legal commitment of 0.7 % of UK gross national income (GNI). The assertion by Treasury solicitors that ministers are immune from legal challenge over aid cuts comes in preliminary exchanges with the aid advocacy group One Campaign. It is the first step in what could prove a highly embarrassing judicial review. In the spring statement in March the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said she was slashing aid from 0.5% to 0.3 % of GNI. The international development minister, Jenny Chapman, recently said in a Guardian interview that this level of spending was the new normal. The 40% cut, due to be imposed by April 2027, is being billed as necessary to fund a new permanent increase in defence spending required by long-term changes to the security landscape. The previous aid cut, from 0.7 % to 0.5 %, imposed by Dominic Raab, the then Conservative foreign secretary, was billed as temporary. It was accompanied by aspirational timetables for aid spending to return to 0.7%, the target set out in the 2015 International Development Act entrenching that figure as the government commitment on overseas aid. One Campaign says that for ministers to comply with the law, they face a choice of either repealing the act, a vote that some Labour MPs will be reluctant to justify to their electorates, or to set out a credible pathway to return to the target. The campaign said it is impossible for ministers to keep legislation on the statute book that places duties upon them they intend to defy. In their legal defence – a written exchange on the legal merits between government and One Campaign prior to a potential judicial review – government lawyers claimed a section in the act shields ministers from all legal challenge. They said the act's only mechanism for securing accountability is through a ministerial report to parliament. They pointed to a section of the act on the ministerial duty to report to parliament that states the reporting duty 'does not affect the lawfulness of anything done or omitted to be done by any person'. The lawyers told One Campaign that 'this puts beyond doubt that parliament intended the courts would have no jurisdiction'. This interpretation is being contested by the Liberal Democrat peer Jeremy Purvis, who helped draft the legislation and steered it through parliament. He said ministers cannot hide behind the narrow section of the act on minister's reporting duty to claim it ousts the courts. He added: 'This government has not just missed the target but is changing it, and there is no scope to do this. 'The simple fact is the government is seeking to avoid a vote in parliament, avoid the courts and avoid all accountability for reneging on all requirements under the act.' He added the government had set out no pathway to return to 0.7 %. One Campaign says the cuts are likely to be devastating. Its director, Adrian Lovett, said there was no evidence that ministers had met the requirement to undertake impact assessments of the cuts on poverty reduction and gender equality. Ministers say they only have to make such an assessment when cuts to specific programmes are being made.
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Diminished UK aid budget is ‘new normal', says development minister
The UK's drastically diminished aid budget is the 'new normal,' the development minister, Jenny Chapman, has said, as she claimed Labour's approach would help repair voters' faith in overseas aid. Lady Chapman took up her post in February, after Anneliese Dodds resigned in protest at Keir Starmer's decision to slash overseas aid spending to 0.3% of gross national income from 0.5%, to pay for increased defence spending. Chapman said as she and her team go through the aid budget line by line, seeking deep cuts, they were not treating the belt-tightening as temporary. 'I'm not making my choices, thinking, 'Oh, we've got to get through the next 18 months, two years and then we'll be back to where we were'. I'm making decisions thinking that this is the new normal and we have to make this work,' she said, repeatedly referring to what she called a '0.3 world'. Chapman was the MP for Darlington from 2010 until 2019, when she lost her seat in Boris Johnson's landslide general election victory. She was ennobled by Starmer in 2021. Speaking in her spacious room in the Foreign Office, she acknowledged the dismay among many longtime supporters of development over the scale of Labour's cuts, but claimed the sector needed to work differently to win back wavering public support. 'I think the aid sector does amazing work and there are incredible people who've spent their lives working to make the world a better place,' she said. 'At the same time, the truth is that the confidence that the public once had in this agenda has faded, and we need to be honest with ourselves about that. And I will work with them to improve that situation.' 'I'm not going to shy away from tough messages when I think they need to be made.' Before the 20-year anniversary of the Gleneagles G8 summit, at which the UK secured significant progress on aid and debt relief, Chapman claimed Labour can still lead on these issues. 'I'm very proud that the last Labour government led thinking around development. We have to do the same now and we have to shape what development looks like for the next 20 years. That is the job.' Chapman attracted criticism earlier in the week for suggesting in an appearance at the cross-party international development committee that the UK had for too long been viewed as a 'global charity'. But speaking after her grilling by the committee, she insisted that even without the necessity of making cuts, the way the government works with developing countries needed significant reform. 'African governments are saying they want partnership, not paternalism. So they want more control over what happens in their country,' she said. Chapman suggested the UK's new approach, within straitened resources, would involve sharing UK expertise and encouraging private sector investment. 'This morning I was in the City with our new investment taskforce,' she said, citing 'lots of enthusiasm, lots of possibilities.' She also underlined the urgency of cutting the cost of supporting asylum seekers in the UK, which accounted for 20% of the overseas aid budget in 2024. Chapman is part of a joint working group with the Home Office aiming to reduce the budget in this area. 'They need to move further and faster because that's not good use of that money. They would agree with that,' she said. Asked where the cuts will fall, Chapman refused to make any specific budget commitments, but said the UK would prioritise humanitarian aid. She also hinted at other areas the government might focus on, including the World Bank's International Development Association (IDA) arm, which gives grants and loans to low-income countries, and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (Gavi). 'Money that's spent by the World Bank, you get £10 invested for every £1 that we put in. That's a good use of money. The IDA fund performs very well, it's got proven evidence based of having an impact,' she said. 'We are one of the biggest, if not the biggest donors to Gavi; it works, it's saved hundreds of thousands, millions of lives.' Related: Cuts to welfare. Cuts to international aid. Has Labour lurched too far to the right? The UK committed £1.98bn over three years to IDA at the end of 2024, before the budget cuts were announced, but it has since been suggested that promise is 'under review'. Gavi has a pledging conference at which the UK will be expected to set out its contribution. Chapman also praised the BBC World Service, amid reports that the government is demanding budget cuts. 'We don't know what the exact allocations are going to be yet. We're working through those numbers, but what I would say is that the World Service do tremendous work that nobody else can do,' she said, calling it 'an absolute gold standard resource'.
Free Malaysia Today
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Free Malaysia Today
UK pledges over US$5mil in aid to Gaza
Jenny Chapman said Israel will not achieve security by prolonging Palestinian people's suffering. (AFP pic) LONDON : Britain pledged £4 million (US$5.4 million) in humanitarian aid to Gaza, the government said on Wednesday, as its minister for development Jenny Chapman visited Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. 'The Israeli government's failure to allow full humanitarian access to aid workers is abhorrent. Far too few trucks are crossing into Gaza,' Chapman said. 'The UK is clear – Israel will not achieve security through prolonging the suffering of the Palestinian people.' Britain, on Tuesday, paused free trade talks with Israel over its new offensive in Gaza, with foreign minister David Lammy calling for an end to the blockade of aid. The British Red Cross will receive the new aid package and deliver it through the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, Britain said.
