The Oxfam scandal should prompt a review of our aid spending target

SIR – William Hague (Comment, February 13) paints an unduly hopeful picture of our expenditure on foreign aid.

The Department for International Development (Dfid) now has a statutory requirement to spend 0.7 per cent of Britain’s gross national income (GNI) on development aid every year. In 2016 this amounted to £13.3 billion. The unsavoury Oxfam scandal shows how impossible it is for staff at Dfid to oversee this extraordinary amount of taxpayers’ money and to ensure that it is properly spent.

British taxpayers are still sending financial aid to India, now one of the richest countries in the world. They are still sending money to Nigeria, the world’s sixth-largest oil producer, while a substantial proportion of the millions sent every year to countries in sub-saharan Africa disappears in what is euphemistically termed “leakage”– better known as corruption.

The British taxpayer has always been a generous contributor to international aid and development, but tasking Dfid with spending £13billion annually is putting the cart before the horse. Rather than focusing on the effective outcome of aid expenditure, the department’s difficult task is now to get this vast sum out of the door.

I have therefore tabled a Private Members’ Bill in the House of Lords, which will eliminate the absolute requirement for the Government to spend 0.7 per cent of our GNI on international aid each and every year. Lord Willoughby de Broke (Ukip) London SW1

SIR – The debacle over Oxfam shows why charities should not be allowed to grow too bloated.

Those who make donations to charity generally give relatively small sums and want them to benefit the cause. In too many cases the money disappears into the corporate maw and the intended beneficiaries remain at the bottom of the heap. Sue Hood

Ardersier, Inverness-shire SIR – Those who threaten to withhold their donations to Oxfam will only punish the people who depend upon these donations for their own survival and the survival of their children.

We should all show compassion, not judgment. Diana Sharp

Wooler, Northumberland

SIR – We all recognise that the Oxfam scandal needs to be investigated.

However, I feel sorry for all the volunteers in shops around the country who work so hard and will be horrified at what has gone on.

They have my great admiration. Maura Rylands

Marton, Cheshire

SIR – My best advice to the generous folk who donate to Oxfam is give your donations to local charities.

You will have a far better idea where the money is going, and thus be more in control. Dave Haskell

Cardigan