The charity ONE Campaign has sent a judicial review pre-action protocol letter to the government in relation to its decision to cut spending on overseas aid to 0.3% – a further departure from the statutory target of 0.7% – in order to fund an increase in defence spending.
ONE – represented by Bates Wells’ Helen Fry, Eloise Carey and Matthew Smith – argues that the government has not set out a plan to redirect funding back from defence to aid, saying that the decision:
“has not been justified as a temporary response to an emergency need, but rather as a strategic realignment of spending priorities, based on developments that have been building over several years and are expected to continue indefinitely. It is a decision to change the target in substance. No plan has been set out to redirect funding from defence back to aid over the short- or even medium-term, and the government has given no indication of how else a restoration of the 0.7% Target might be funded.”
It says that the decision is as such a change to the statutory target that should have been effected through primary legislation.
ONE also argues that the government, in making the cut, failed to have regard to its statutory duties to reduce poverty and advance gender inequality, and that it failed to sufficiently explain its reasoning.
ONE estimates that the cuts could result in 600,000 fewer lives saved due to reduced investment in the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; 37 million children missing out on vaccinations for diseases like measles and polio; and 290,000 children losing access to food assistance provided by the World Food Programme.
If you would like to discuss strategic litigation or judicial review more broadly, please contact Helen or Matthew.