Overview

ICAI works to improve UK aid through robust, independent, scrutiny. We do this through producing a series of reviews and reports examining a range of different areas of UK aid spending and processes. These reviews look at the spending of official development assistance (ODA), whichever UK government department or cross-government fund it is spent by. We operate independently of government and report to Parliament through the House of Commons International Development Committee (IDC), or its ICAI sub-committee. In addition to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), UK aid-spending departments include the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and cross-government funds such as the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF). We make recommendations in our reports for the government to consider, and the government must respond, indicating whether they accept, partially accept or reject each recommendation, and setting out the actions they propose to take in response. Following the government’s response, a hearing is held by the IDC, or the ICAI sub-committee, to look at our findings and the government’s response in more detail. A crucial part in the accountability chain is the ICAI follow-up process, in which we revisit the previous year’s reviews and assess the progress made, providing Parliament and the public with an account of how well the government has responded to our recommendations.