Supplementary Memorandum
submitted by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
At Sir John Kerr's Hearing on 23 June on the
FCO Departmental Report he undertook to provide some factual material
requested by those members of the Committee.
I therefore now enclose notes on:
(a) arrears of payments due by the United
Nations to the United Kingdom and other member states for contributions
to peacekeeping operations (Questions 390 and 392: Mr Illsley);
(b) numbers and cost of staff in FCO Ministers'
Private Offices (including Special Advisers) and News Department
(Questions 416-420: Mrs Bottomley);
(c) expenditure on publicity for the FCO
Mission Statement (Question 421: Mrs Bottomley).
UN PEACEKEEPING FINANCE
Repayment of contributions to peacekeeping operations
According to the most recent data available
from the UN Secretariat, at 31 December 1997 the UN had received
claims[2]
for the following amounts from UN member states for their contributions
of troops and equipment to UN peacekeeping operations:
| $ million |
|
| |
| Argentina | 21.214 |
| Australia | 5.355 |
| Austria | 9.416 |
| Bangladesh | 18.373 |
| Belgium | 58.085 |
| Botswana | 1.392 |
| Brazil | 18.435 |
| Bulgaria | 0.902 |
| Canada | 50.390 |
| Chile | 0.086 |
| China | 0.244 |
| Czech Republic | 14.098 |
| Denmark | 23.858 |
| Djibouti | 0.181 |
| Egypt | 21.248 |
| Estonia | 0.913 |
| Ethiopia | 0.186 |
| Fiji | 4.520 |
| Finland | 24.029 |
| France | 151.315 |
| Germany | 34.073 |
| Ghana | 5.314 |
| Greece | 0.184 |
| Guatemala | 0.019 |
| Honduras | 0.040 |
| Hungary | 0.535 |
| India | 47.353 |
| Indonesia | 9.597 |
| Ireland | 9.409 |
| Italy | 62.490 |
| Jamaica | 0.002 |
| Japan | 4.686 |
| Jordan | 13.265 |
| Kenya | 7.460 |
| Korea, Republic of | 3.231 |
| Kuwait | 1.458 |
| Luxembourg | 0.078 |
| Malawi | 0.140 |
| Malaysia | 24.597 |
| Mali | 0.046 |
| Morocco | 3.556 |
| Namibia | 5.006 |
| Nepal | 6.204 |
| Netherlands | 50.912 |
| New Zealand | 2.936 |
| Nigeria | 4.624 |
| Norway | 20.129 |
| Pakistan | 45.416 |
| Philippines | 0.115 |
| Poland | 13.312 |
| Portugal | 7.599 |
| Romania | 18.367 |
| Russian Federation | 36.058
|
| Saudi Arabia | 0.958 |
| Senegal | 0.197 |
| Singapore | 0.001 |
| Slovakia | 24.918 |
| Slovenia | 0.034 |
| Spain | 27.756 |
| Sweden | 20.939 |
| Switzerland | 2.432 |
| Thailand | 2.173 |
| Tunisia | 0.586 |
| Turkey | 5.737 |
| Ukraine | 19.228 |
| U.A.E. | 0.486 |
| United Kingdom | 65.847 |
| USA | 109.183 |
| Uruguay | 9.522 |
| Zambia | 10.909 |
| Zimbabwe | 11.850 |
|
| Total | 1,175.157 |
Reimbursements to the United Kingdom for contributions to UN
peacekeeping operations
The amounts owed to the United Kingdom by the United Nations
for peacekeeping operations rose in the early 1990s due to the
coincidence of our contributions to the large-scale UNPROFOR operation
in the former Yugoslavia and the worsening of the US arrears problem.
More recently, however, the trend has been downward.
| As of | Amount owing |
| ($ million) |
| 31 August 1997 | 70.840 |
| 31 December 1997 | 65.847 |
| 31 May 1998 | 56.906 |
The reasons for the reduction are (a) the bulk of the outstanding
payments relate to UNPROFOR, which was superseded by NATO operations
from January 1996, and (b) UN peacekeeping commitments elsewhere
have fallen off dramatically. But the pace of reimbursement continues
to be slow and unsatisfactory: we have still only recovered about
77 per cent of our reimbursable UNPROFOR costs.
Total amounts received by the United Kingdom in reimbursements
from the UN over the past two financial years are as follows:
| Mission area | FY 1996-97
£
| FY 1997-98
£ |
|
| | |
| Former Yugoslavia | 40,063,089
| 733,995 |
| Africa | 4,243,963 | 1,134,629
|
| Cyprus | 3,381,146 | 7,015,313
|
|
| | |
| Total | 47,688,198 | 8,883,937
|
Since 1996, the UK has been making troop and equipment contributions
only to UNFICYP in Cyprus, for which the UN has continued to reimburse
us at a steady rate, matching the pace of debt accrual.
STAFFING OF
MINISTERS' OFFICES
(INCLUDING SPECIAL
ADVISERS) AND
NEWS DEPARTMENT
| 1993-94 |
1994-95 | 1995-96 | 1996-97
| 1997-98 |
| Staff (as at 31 March) |
| | | |
|
| Foreign Secretary's Office | 16
| 17 | 15 | 15
| 14 |
| Special Advisers | 2 | 2
| 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 18 | 19 |
17 | 17 | 16 |
| Other Ministers' Offices | 22
| 21 | 18 | 20
| 23 |
| | |
| | |
| Totals | 40 | 40
| 35 | 37 | 39
|
| | |
| | |
| News Department | 15 | 15
| 15 | 15 | 21
|
| | |
| | |
| Running costs (£'000) (including salaries)
| | | |
| |
| Foreign Secretary's Office | 861
| 1,007 | 989 | 1,048
| — |
| Other Ministers' Offices | 1,181
| 1,151 | 1,043 | 1,376
| — |
| | |
| | |
| Totals | 2,042 | 2,158
| 2,032 | 2,424 | —
|
| News Department | 806 | 971
| 944 | 1,372 | —
|
| | |
| | |
Notes: The FCO's management information system has been updated to provide a more accurate allocation of expenditure. As a result, statistics for 1996-97 are not directly comparable to those for earlier years.
Running cost figures for 1997-98 are not yet available.
PUBLICATIONS
The cost to public funds of the press conference on 12 May
1997 at which the Foreign Secretary presented the FCO Mission
Statement was £19,000. An additional £7,000 was paid
for the hire of a video wall. The video shown, which was produced
in-house and drew on our own television archive, cost £28,000.
It has since been shown at a number of other events.
This information was originally given to the House by Mr
Fatchett on 20 May 1997 in answer to written Questions from Mr
Hogg, Mr Wilshire and Mr Fallon (Hansard columns 39 and
40).
The costs incurred, in line with the average cost of a presentation
of this kind, were met from within the FCO's existing budget for
activities to project Britain (as described on pages 34-7 of the
Departmental Report). Funding for such activities, and for other
priorities identified in the Mission Statement, has been found
by reprioritising within the FCO's existing overall budget.
July 1998
2
Many of these claims have yet to be agreed by the UN Secretariat.
However, the UK figure is an agreed amount. Back
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