The Government is committed to returning to spending 0.7 per cent of GNI on official development assistance (ODA) when the fiscal situation allows and has provided a clear measure for this. The two key tests are (1) When we are not borrowing to support day-to-day spending. That means when the current budget is in surplus. (2) When underlying debt is falling. This is measured by Public Sector Net Debt (excluding the Bank of England) as a percentage of GDP. When these tests are met then the Government will increase ODA spending above 0.5% of GNI to 0.7% of GNI. On 13 July, the Government provided members of Parliament the opportunity to debate its proposed course of action and pathway back to 0.7. The House voted clearly with a majority of 35 votes to approve the approach set out in the Treasury's 12 July Written Ministerial Statement. Improving economic forecasts show that HMG may meet its test to return to spending 0.7% of Gross National Income on aid in the final year of this Spending Review.

The UK is concerned that humanitarian needs may be growing in North Korea. According to UN figures, 40% of North Korea's population were food insecure in 2019. We assess that North Korea's own restrictions at the border have prevented aid shipments from entering the country since January 2020, and that natural disasters last year may have reduced harvest yields. North Korea continues to claim that it has had zero cases of Covid-19.

We are unable to verify the humanitarian or Covid situations directly, because the border restrictions also forced the temporary closure of the British Embassy in Pyongyang in May 2020. Other Embassies have also closed or reduced their staff, and we understand the Russian Embassy sent some of its staff home in early July. All UN agencies and NGOs have also now withdrawn expatriate staff and ceased operations. We will work to restore the British Embassy presence in Pyongyang once it is safe and possible to do so, and encourage North Korea to allow entry for humanitarian workers to carry out an independent assessment of humanitarian needs, and to facilitate delivery of humanitarian assistance to vulnerable communities.

UK Embassies and High Commissions have not been asked to monitor and report these issues.

The sixth UK-Tunisia Bilateral Forum, which took place in London on 12 September, provided an opportunity to exchange views on bilateral and regional issues, and underlined both countries' desire to continue to collaborate closely. Both countries committed themselves to finalising a broad bilateral association agreement, which was signed on 4 October. This Agreement will provide a comprehensive framework for the growing trade between our countries and strengthen cooperation on political dialogue, democracy, education, trade, environment and human rights. The Joint Communique of the Forum, providing further details of its conclusions, has been published on gov.uk.

While no new measures relating to migration in Africa were agreed, we continue to work closely with Tunisia to address the issue of unmanaged migration from Africa to Europe and to help Tunisian authorities deal with this challenge.

Since 2011 progress has been made in furthering the democratic transition across the North African Maghreb. Nevertheless we recognise the importance of underpinning stability by enhancing political and economic inclusion of all citizens. We are alive to the regional threat of terrorism and regularly engage with our Maghreb partners, both at ministerial and official level, to support efforts to address security challenges, ensure political and economic stability, and manage migration. We are working with our regional partners to support ongoing reform processes, and to boost trade and investment, including through programming valued at more than £20 million this financial year. These programmes have provided support in areas such as governance, security, human rights, economic reform and border security.

Further information on our North Africa programmes is available on the gov.uk website.

The second set of US unilateral sanctions on Iran came into full force on 5 November. We consider it is therefore too soon to be able to fully assess the impact of the reintroduction of these sanctions on refugee and migration flows from Iran. However, Iran continues to be a significant source of migrants to the UK. Its economy has suffered from high inflation and a significant decline in the currency value this year.