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Assisted Area Status
Mr. Alasdair Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, pursuant to his answer of 7 December 1999, Official Report, column 457W, concerning eligibility of wards for assisted area status in Dumfries and Galloway, what is the nature of the personal information referred to in his answer. [104419]
Mr. Caborn: Some of the information used in identifying areas of significant labour market weakness is confidential as it was collected under the provisions of the Statistics of Trade Act 1947, in particular the manufacturing activity within wards.
Independent Assessment Panel
Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will make a statement about the membership of the Independent Assessment Panel for the Partnership Fund. [105515]
Mr. Alan Johnson:
An independent Assessment Panel of nine members is to recommend to Ministers which projects should receive funding in the first round of the £5 million Partnership Fund.
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The nine members of the Assessment Panel--three trade unionists, three industrialists and three independent experts--will report to Ministers who will then make the final decisions on which projects have been successful. The successful applicants for funding under the Partnership Fund will be announced in Spring 2000.
Appointments are for a period of one year renewable for up to four years from 20 December 1999. Members are unpaid although travel and subsistence expenses are available.
The members of the Assessment Panel are:
Mr. Pike:
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what is the Government's target date for replacing the UK electricity pool system. [105421]
Mrs. Liddell:
The target for the implementation of the new electricity trading arrangements is autumn 2000.
Mr. Pike:
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment his Department has made of the impact on the electricity pool price of the fire at Drax Power Station in December; and if he will make a statement on the related discussions he has had with the industry on this subject. [105420]
Mrs. Liddell:
As a result of a fire at Drax power station on 27 December I understand that part of the output of the station will be unavailable for a period. It is not uncommon for some generating plants to be unavailable for technical reasons and there is adequate generating capacity available on the system to cover such incidents. The incident at Drax affected only around 1 per cent. of the available generation on the England and Wales system and the impact on Pool prices is small.
Mr. Hoyle:
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will make a statement on the decision by the Japanese electricity company Kansai Electric Power to return nuclear fuel to Britain. [105266]
Mrs. Liddell:
The Government have noted Kansai Electric's statement of 10 January that they will ask BNFL to return the eight fuel assemblies at the Takahama 4 reactor to the UK. This raises a number of issues which
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will need to be explored by the Japanese and UK Governments before Kansai and BNFL reach any conclusions.
Ms Perham:
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will make a statement on the implementation of the Part-time Work Directive. [105542]
Mr. Alan Johnson:
I am today publishing a consultation document setting out the Government's proposals for implementing the Part-time Work Directive by means of regulations giving part-timers the right to be treated no less-favourably than comparable full-timers. The consultation lasts until 27 February, and I expect to lay Regulations soon afterwards.
Mr. Woolas:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what plans the Government have to help alleviate suffering in Sudan. [104359]
Mr. Foulkes:
This financial year we have pledged £8 million to respond to humanitarian needs in Sudan. Though suffering in the country is not as severe as during the crisis of 1998 we are following the situation closely. Ending the war is the key to alleviating the suffering in Sudan and we are working hard with our international partners to support the current peace efforts sponsored by the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development.
Ms Oona King:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what reports she has received concerning religious discrimination in Government-run peace camps in Southern Sudan. [104367]
Mr. Foulkes:
The Peace Camps or Peace Villages set up by the Government of Sudan in the Nuba Mountain region have been accused of being part of the Government's alleged aim of islamisation of the people. However, given the scarcity of information from that region we are unable to determine the true situation. Last year's United Nations assessment mission to the region did not identify religious discrimination as a problem, but the subject was not part of the mission's terms of reference.
Dr. Tonge:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many applications for aid have been made by non-Governmental organisations concerning aid projects in Ethiopia; and how many have been (a) accepted and (b) rejected. [104679]
Mr. Foulkes:
During the current financial year, DFID has received 10 applications from NGOs for humanitarian aid projects. Five of these have been accepted, four rejected, and one is currently under consideration.
Dr. Tonge:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if she will make a statement concerning the current humanitarian situation in Ethiopia and Eritrea. [104677]
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Mr. Foulkes:
In Ethiopia, recent estimates by the Government of Ethiopia, endorsed by the World Food Programme, give a total of 6.9 million people in need of food aid assistance due to adverse weather. An additional 385,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs), from the war zone in the border area disputed with Eritrea, are also in need of assistance.
In Eritrea, the results of the conflict with Ethiopia are the principal cause of the present humanitarian situation. Those affected include 250,000 IDPs, a similar number of war-affected (mainly those households who have taken in IDPs) and 64,000 people who have been deported from Ethiopia. There are also some rural areas which are drought affected, and FAO is currently conducting a survey with the Eritrean Ministry of Agriculture to assess the extent of this problem.
Dr. Tonge:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what recent assessment her Department has made concerning the drought conditions in Ethiopia. [104678]
Mr. Foulkes:
The Department for International Development (DFID) relies on the assessments of the United Nations, the Government of Ethiopia, NGOs and USAID in monitoring the drought conditions in Ethiopia. We do not seek to duplicate the work of these organisations. We employ a Field Manager in Addis Ababa who regularly participates in joint assessment missions with the Ethiopian Government and other donors, participates in food aid co-ordination meetings and visits areas identified for potential DFID assistance. The official is backed up by regular visits from a senior natural resources adviser based in London.
Dr. Tonge:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what is her Department's policy on the provision of development aid to (a) Ethiopia and (b) Sudan. [104676]
Mr. Foulkes:
The UK is completing current commitments in Ethiopia and continuing to provide humanitarian assistance but will not agree any new funding proposals until the war with Eritrea has ended.
UK Development Aid to Sudan ceased in January 1991. Substantial humanitarian assistance to Sudan has continued since then.
Dr. Tonge:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what response her Department has made to the Ethiopian Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission's appeal, entitled Emergency Relief Needs in Ethiopia-January-March 2000. [104681]
Mr. Foulkes:
The Department for International Development's (DFID) policy is to channel emergency food relief through NGOs or UN agencies.
Current and planned projects which are relevant to this Appeal are as follows:
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Ms Yvonne Bennion, Policy Specialist at the Industrial Society
Mr. David Coats, Head of Economic and Social Affairs Department at the TUC
Mr. Bill Connor, General Secretary of USDAW
Mr. Willy Coupar (Chairman of the Panel), Director of the IPA
Mrs. Lesley James, formerly HR Director of Tesco plc.
Mr. Mike Kinski, Group Chief Executive of Stagecoach Holdings plc.
Dr. Clive Morton OBE, Business Development Director at Anglian Water
Mrs. Margaret Prosser OBE, Deputy General Secretary of TGWU
Mr. John Stevens, Director of Development & Public Policy at the IPD
Brief biographies of the members of the Panel have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses of Parliament.
DFID has recently approved a £1.1 million project for provision of 3,000 metric tonnes (mt) of emergency food aid to Konso, in the southern region of Ethiopia. This will be distributed between
January and April 2000, through a project implemented by the British NGO, FARM Africa, in collaboration with Ethiopian local government agencies.
We are already funding a 3,000 mt food aid intervention in Koisha, southern region, which runs to the end of January.
DFID is presently reviewing a proposal for a further 6,240 mt of food aid to be distributed through an NGO project in Wollo, Amhara Region.
We are also contributing indirectly through EU food aid commitments.
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