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Written question asked by Lord Grayling (Conservative) on Monday, 8 January 2024, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 11 January 2024 (named day). It was answered by Rebecca Pow (Conservative) on Tuesday, 13 February 2024 on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Darwin Initiative: Finance

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 19 December 2023 to Question 5477 on Darwin Initiative: Finance, how much grant funding has been provided to organisations with representatives on the Darwin Extra panel in the last three years; and what proportion of total grant funding this figure represents.

Answer

Darwin Extra applications are assessed by the Darwin Expert Committee which then makes recommendations to Defra on which grants to fund. The Answer of 19 December 2023 to Question 5477 noted that Darwin Expert Committee members have declared an interest in 13 of the 107 organisations awarded Darwin Initiative grants in the past 3 years. These 13 organisations were awarded Darwin Initiative grants with a combined value of £37.9m, which represents 49% of the £77m awarded under Rounds 27-29; these 13 organisations also unsuccessfully bid for a further £76.3m of grant funding in Rounds 27-29.

The Darwin Initiative requires an Expert Committee with up-to-date, practical knowledge of how to implement successful international development and conservation projects. Under its last three funding rounds, the Darwin Initiative received applications from 915 organisations. To not permit anyone with links to these organisations to serve on the Darwin Initiative’s Expert Committee could limit Defra’s ability to determine which proposed investments are most likely to succeed.

To ensure the independence of any advice provided by the Committee, Defra has in place a robust conflicts of interest policy, where members are required to declare their interests and recuse themselves from the assessment of any application in which they have an interest. Decisions on which Darwin Initiative grants to award are taken by Defra.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
8346
Session
2023-24
Related items
Darwin Initiative: Finance
Tuesday, 19 December 2023
Written questions
House of Commons
Registered interest declared
Yes
Subjects
Finance Darwin initiative
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk