The UK has become less transparent in how it spends its aid budget, amid repeated cuts and ministerial turnover, according to a new report.

The 2026 Aid Transparency Index, the world’s only independent peer-reviewed assessment on aid transparency evaluates how well major donors, development banks, and UN agencies disclose their spending and activity data. In the latest ranking the UK’s transparency score fell 13.9 points from “very good” to “good”.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) lost points for its lack of “comprehensive forward-looking country and organisational budgets and strategies, and project objectives”.

Twenty of the 33 ranked international organisations, over 60 per cent, scored “good” or “very good”, with just three rated “poor” or “very poor”.…