The Future of DFID in Scotland

That the Parliament recognises the contribution that the Department for International Development (DFID) staff based in East Kilbride make in administering the world’s second largest aid budget; notes that approximately 600 people are employed at the Abercrombie House office, where work is undertaken on a wide range of areas, including development policy and research, African and Asian regional programmes and the eradication of world hunger and malnutrition in addition to key corporate services for the department; welcomes reports that the UK has at last become the first country in the G8 to spend 0.7% of its gross national income (GNI) on overseas development assistance; considers that, while there are legitimate differences of opinion among political parties and between those campaigning on different sides of the constitutional debate about the future of international development, there is also a welcome consensus on the importance of Scotland and the UK’s international obligations, including honouring the commitment to spend a minimum of 0.7% of GNI on overseas development assistance and enshrining this commitment in law; believes that the wider debate on independence would be enhanced by thoughtful, informed consideration of the implications of independence on international development; therefore notes remarks by Dave Fish, who, it considers, as a former head of DFID in Scotland and former director of DFID’s Africa programme, can be regarded as an authority on international development, who warned that DFID jobs in East Kilbride would be “relocated back to the residual United Kingdom” in the event of a Yes vote in September 2014 and that “the suggestion by SNP ministers that the United Kingdom would continue to employ hundreds of people in what would be a foreign country is – like so much of the case for independence – simply not credible”; further notes the findings of the House of Commons International Development Committee, which expects DFID’s aid budget to fall by around £1 billion as a consequence of independence; considers that the costs of establishing an independent Scottish development agency would likely require a greater share of development spending to be allocated toward administration instead of frontline aid; believes that the development policies set out in the white paper on independence could lead to the fragmentation of aid spending, which is overwhelmingly pooled and resourced across the UK at present, and believes that Scotland continuing as part of the UK is key to safeguarding civil service employment at Abercrombie House in East Kilbride and securing Scotland’s role in shaping global development and supporting 28 countries across Asia, Africa and the Middle East through DFID.