| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
Departmental Meetings
Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list the (a) meetings and (b) official social contacts between Foreign Office (i) Ministers and (ii) special advisers and Mr. Philip Gould from 1 May 1997 to date. [110510]
Mr. Robin Cook: Ministers and civil servants meet many people as part of the process of policy development and analysis. All such contacts are conducted in accordance with the Ministerial Code, Civil Service Code and guidance for Civil Servants: Contacts with lobbyists. Some of these discussions take place on a confidential basis and, in order to preserve confidentiality, it is not the normal practice of Governments to release details of specific meetings with private individuals or companies.
Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list the recent departmental meetings with Stanley Greenberg and James Caville. [110511]
Mr. Hain:
Ministers and civil servants meet many people as part of the process of policy development and analysis. All such contacts are conducted in accordance with the Ministerial Code, Civil Service Code and
17 Feb 2000 : Column: 679W
guidance for Civil Servants: Contacts with lobbyists. Some of these discussions take place on a confidential basis and, in order to preserve confidentiality, it is not the normal practice of Governments to release details of specific meetings with private individuals or companies.
Mrs. Gillan:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to his answer of 3 February 2000, Official Report, column 739W, on departmental expenditure, how much is (a) the transfer from another departmental expenditure limit of DFID and (b) the charge on the departmental expenditure limit reserve. [110514]
Mr. Hain:
Our answer to the question of my hon. Friend the Member for Waveney (Mr. Blizzard) regarding the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's Departmental Expenditure Limits contained an administrative error. The closing statement should have begun "The increase will be offset by a transfer from another Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL)", not "Departmental Expenditure Limit (DFID)". This is a standard Treasury line used when a department increases its DEL.
Our answer detailed an increase in our DEL of £5,157,000 and a breakdown of how this sum was made up. The breakdown detailed a variety of transfers between the FCO and other Government Departments internal movements and a claim on the reserve to support peacekeeping operations.
Mrs. Gillan:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to his answer of 3 February 2000, Official Report, column 739W, on departmental expenditure, what is the reason for the increase of £2 million in the capital expenditure and £2 million in the appropriation in aid for FCO estates rationalisation. [110515]
Mr. Battle:
The reason for the increase in appropriations in aid is that the FCO was able to sell assets worth £2 million more than projected. The increase in capital expenditure reflects the recycling of those proceeds into other FCO capital programmes.
Mrs. Gillan:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many diplomats in the British Embassy in Ukraine are engaged in trade promotion; and what monitoring he conducts of the comparable figures for other EU states. [110572]
Mr. Battle:
One senior diplomat leads a team of four locally engaged staff on trade promotion in Kiev. Our Ambassador devotes about 20 per cent. of his time to this work as do other staff to a smaller degree.
A full review of our Embassy in Kiev was conducted in November last year. British Trade International, who now operate the trade support services of the FCO and DTI, take account of the positions of comparable EU states when planning the allocation of resources.
Mrs. Gillan:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if it is the Government's policy to support Ukraine's aspiration for EU membership; and
17 Feb 2000 : Column: 680W
what representations he or his Department have received from Ukraine concerning Ukrainian membership of the EU. [110579]
Mr. Vaz:
We support Ukraine's aspirations for closer relations with the EU, but consider it too early to consider the question of possible EU membership. The EU/Ukraine Partnership and Co-operation Agreement offers wide scope for closer relations and we encourage Ukraine to implement it fully. Ukraine Ministers have frequently requested EU support for their aspirations to EU membership. It was one of the topics raised with me yesterday by the Foreign Policy Adviser to the Ukrainian President.
Mrs. Gillan:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations he has made to the Ukrainian Government about (a) Ukraine's weapons exports and (b) illegal export of arms from Ukraine. [110582]
Mr. Vaz:
My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary made representations regarding reports of Ukrainian manufactured arms in Sierra Leone and Angola to the Ukrainian Foreign Minister on 1 February and 16 December 1999. The Minister of State, my hon. Friend the Member for Neath (Mr. Hain) made similar representations to the Ukrainian Ambassador on 16 September 1999. A team of officials will travel to Ukraine in March to explore ways in which we can co-operate to combat illegal arms transfers in Africa. We do not believe that the Ukrainian Government is itself involved in illegal arms exports.
Mrs. Gillan:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations have been made to other EU states by his Department concerning Ukrainian membership of the EU. [110580]
Mr. Vaz:
The future of Ukraine's relations with the EU was discussed extensively with other EU member states during drafting of the EU Common Strategy on Ukraine, which was adopted at the Helsinki European Council in December 1999. The UK successfully argued that the Common Strategy should acknowledge Ukraine's European aspirations and welcome Ukraine's pro- European choice.
Dr. Godman:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the report on Children's Rights published by the Children's Select Committee. [109822]
Mr. Hain:
In November 1999, to mark the tenth anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the FCO and Save the Children UK organised a Children's Select Committee. 16 children from across the UK chose to examine four issues of central importance to children: child soldiers, child labour, child rights and the environment, and child participation. The Committee's findings were presented in a report to the FCO on 8 February making a number of recommendations for the Government, business sector and NGOs to consider.
The FCO is co-ordinating the Government's response which we plan to publish by the middle of April. We will also be looking at ways to publicise the Committee's report and a video of the event as widely as possible, including through our Posts overseas.
17 Feb 2000 : Column: 681W
Mrs. Gillan:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list all his Department's premises (a) currently for sale and (b) being considered for disposal. [110513]
Mr. Battle:
Details of current FCO properties for sale are as listed. As to listing properties being considered for disposal, the entire estate is reviewed as part of a rolling programme revaluation exercise. This reveals properties which appear to be performing poorly on the basis of key performance indicators. These are then examined in detail to determine whether they should be replaced by more effective properties.
17 Feb 2000 : Column: 682W
Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list all of his Department's premises sold since 1 May 1997 together with the sale price and the names of the buyers. [110512]
Mr. Battle:
Since 1 May 1997 the FCO has sold 78 estate assets. Details are as listed. Total proceeds to date from completed sales amount to £39 million. For reasons of commercial confidentiality, the FCO does not publish names of buyers. Were we to do so, prospective purchasers might be dissuaded from bidding.
17 Feb 2000 : Column: 681W
(16) A further £10 million will be received from this sale in March 2000, and a further £3.6 million will be received in 2001-02
17 Feb 2000 : Column: 683W
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |