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Special Envoys
Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Prime Minister, pursuant to the oral answer by the right hon. Member for Livingston (Mr. Cook) to the hon. Member for Chesham and Amersham of 20 July 1999, Official Report, column 962, if he will list the occasions on which special envoys have been used by his Government, and the names of the envoys concerned. [93178]
The Prime Minister [holding answer 26 July 1999]: I refer the hon. Member to the Answer given today to the hon. Member for Stratford-on-Avon (Mr. Maples), Official Report, column 373, by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.
UK Delegations
Mr. Quinn: To ask the Prime Minister if there are any changes in the composition of the United Kingdom Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the Assembly of the Western European Union. [93655]
The Prime Minister:
Baroness Knight of Collingtree DBE replaces the right hon. Sir Alastair Goodlad KCMG as a full representative of the Delegation. Following the resignation of Lord Grenfell from the Delegation, the right hon. Lord Clinton-Davis has been appointed as a substitute representative from the Government benches.
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Mr. Kaufman:
To ask the Prime Minister if he will inform all members of his administration that, when giving written or oral replies to parliamentary questions, they should not use the locutions relocate, meet with and consult with, and that they should use good English. [93214]
The Prime Minister:
What matters most is that Ministers give accurate and truthful information to Parliament, as required by the Ministerial Code. The use of clear and concise English can be the best way of achieving this. However, I do not think it necessary to proscribe the use of any particular phrase.
Mr. Mackinlay:
To ask the Prime Minister when he intends to visit (a) the Czech Republic, (b) Hungary, (c) Slovenia and (d) Estonia. [92691]
The Prime Minister:
I recognise the importance of these countries but have no plans to visit at present.
Mr. Mackinlay:
To ask the Prime Minister (1) when he intends to visit Poland; [92692]
The Prime Minister:
I regret that I have had to postpone my visit to Poland on two occasions due to pressure of other duties, mainly talks on Northern Ireland. I hope to reinstate a visit as soon as the opportunity arises.
Mr. Maclean:
To ask the Prime Minister if he will publish a list of the public petitions submitted to the Government in each of the last two years. [93469]
The Prime Minister:
There is no operational requirement to maintain these details and no central list is therefore collated. However, in respect of my office, 101 petitions have been received this year, of which 14 contained more than 10,000 signatures. In line with the practice adopted by previous Governments, petitions delivered to my Office are acknowledged wherever possible and the relevant Government Department informed. Where appropriate, the views expressed are reflected in advice to Ministers about what the public response is to an issue.
Mr. Paul Marsden:
To ask the Prime Minister what plans he has to meet the National Cancer Forum to assess progress on implementing the Policy Framework for Commissioning Cancer Services; and if he will make a statement. [93625]
The Prime Minister:
The aim of the Policy Framework for Commissioning Cancer Services is to improve the quality and consistency of cancer services across the country. The National Cancer Forum has been established to advise on the on-going implementation of the Policy Framework.
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I met members of the National Cancer Forum in May when I hosted a meeting in Downing Street to review progress and to identify where further action is needed to improve cancer prevention and care.
Mr. Streeter:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what proportion of her Department's health budget is paid to (a) IPPF, (b) UNFPA and (c) other population control agencies which provide abortion services as well as contraceptives. [93431]
Clare Short:
The Department for International Development (DFID) works with national governments, multilateral agencies and civil society groups in over 150 countries to enable more poor people to benefit from good quality reproductive health care, including voluntary family counselling and services; HIV/AIDS/STD prevention, treatment and care; essential obstetric care, including treatment for the consequences of unsafe abortion and, where legal, elective termination of pregnancy. Around 7.5 per cent. and 2.5 per cent. of DFID's 1998-99 health expenditure of £200 million was invested via UNFPA and IPPF respectively in order to enable poor people to exercise their basic right to reproductive choice and reproductive health.
Mr. Streeter:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if the British Government funds compulsory abortion and sterilisation programmes. [93432]
Clare Short:
All UK Government assistance for sexual and reproductive health is contingent on respect for the human rights principles and standards of privacy and free and informed choice upheld at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development. Coercion and control have no place in UN supported family planning.
Mr. Streeter:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if she will make a statement on the British Government's policy in respect of health services for young people. [93495]
Clare Short:
The Department for International Development's policies in respect of health services for young people seek to implement the Key Actions recently adopted by the UN General Assembly further to implement the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development and are consistent with the UK Government's recent White Paper "Saving Lives: Our Healthier Nation".
Mr. Flynn:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what targets have been set by her Department to increase the income of those people who are living on less than one US dollar a day. [92855]
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Clare Short:
Our aim is to mobilise the international system to achieve the internationally agreed target of reducing by half the proportion of people living in extreme poverty by 2015. In the Comprehensive Spending Review published in July 1998, we set out key targets to be achieved by the end of this Parliament, including annual growth of 1.5 per cent. in Gross Domestic Product per capita, and quantified measures for progress in health and education, strategies for sustainable development, improvements in the effectiveness of the international system and increased effectiveness of the United Kingdom's bilateral aid programme. Progress against these targets, which closely reflect the International Development Goals, will be rigorously monitored in the Department's annual Output and Performance Analysis which will be made publicly available.
Mr. Corbett:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what plans she has for monitoring public attitudes on international development issues. [93699]
Clare Short:
The Government are committed to working to increase public awareness and understanding of international development issues and to monitoring the effectiveness of this work. We are therefore conducting a baseline survey this month through the Office for National Statistics' Omnibus Survey, and will make the results publicly available. Further surveys will be undertaken periodically, in order to measure progress against our objectives.
Mr. Hope:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what funding her Department is providing for intensive shrimp production in Bangladesh. [93703]
Clare Short:
We have recently agreed to provide £9.76 million to support the Government of Bangladesh's Fourth Fisheries Project. The project will engage government, non-governmental and community based organisations in improving aquatic resource management of inland waters and coastal polders. Fourteen per cent. of the funding will support a component for improving the shrimp production system. Our contribution is 25 per cent. of the total project requirements, which will be parallel financed with the World bank and the Bangladesh Government over five years.
As a major supporter of sustainable fisheries development in Bangladesh for many years, we share local concerns about the environmental and social impact of past development of the shrimp industry. We have been able to influence development partners in this sector, using our expertise to provide strong environmental and social analyses in the design of the new project. This helped to put poverty elimination and environmental sustainability objectives at the centre of project design. For the shrimp component, we also helped to modify the focus of the project to the creation of more diverse and stable livelihoods in areas where shrimp are produced.
The project plans to promote the production of shrimp by smallholders, but this is conditional on the outcome of a feasibility study in the first year which will fully
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consider social and environmental dimensions in consultation with the communities concerned and NGOs. The project will also support a regional initiative to develop a Code of Conduct for responsible shrimp culture.
(2) on how many occasions dates have been identified with the UK Embassy in Poland for the Prime Minister to visit Poland and have subsequently been abandoned. [92802]
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