WIREDGOV

Following the Queen's speech yesterday highlighting the Coalition Government’s firm plans to spend 0.7% of GNI as official development assistance from 2013, a Department for International Development spokesperson said:

"The commitment to legislate was set out in the Coalition programme for government. The Bill is ready and will be introduced when parliamentary time allows."

"The Coalition Government is the first government in history to set out, in black and white in the spending review, clear plans to honour our aid pledge from 2013. This historic move was reconfirmed in the Autumn Statement and most recently in the March Budget.

"Spending less than 1% of our national income on aid - an internationally agreed target - will create a safer and more prosperous world for the UK.

"Tackling poverty in the world's poorest places can mean tackling the root causes of global problems such as disease, drugs, migration, terrorism, and climate change, which matter to us here in Britain."