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19 Jul 2001 : Column: 307W

Written Answers to Questions

Thursday 19 July 2001

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Nigeria

David Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if she will make a statement on the work of her Department in improving access to justice in Nigeria. [6346]

Clare Short: I have this month approved a £30 million programme to support Nigerian Government efforts, at both federal and state level, to enable poor people to obtain rapid and fair justice. This involves the whole justice system—courts, police, prisons, legal aid, and traditional and informal mediation. We plan to implement this programme particularly in the four states in which our programmes are focused. These are Benue, Ekiti, Jigawa and a state in the south-east yet to be selected. Jigawa State announced last August that it will apply Shari'a criminal law. We will ensure that the assistance programme is taken forward in all four states in ways that uphold international human rights standards.

Botswana and Namibia

Mr. Nigel Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if she will make a statement on her Department's assistance to (a) Botswana and (b) Namibia. [4279]

Hilary Benn: In Botswana, DFID is supporting programmes in rural livelihoods, education and HIV/AIDS. In Namibia, DFID is supporting programmes in rural livelihoods, education and health. In the financial year 2000–01, DFID provided around £2.5 million of assistance directly to Botswana and £2.6 million to Namibia in addition to our contributions through multilateral agencies.

Over the next few years, DFID will be subsuming its bilateral programmes in Botswana and Namibia within a more regional approach to poverty elimination.

Green Ministers

Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development (1) what are the terms of reference for the Green Minister in her Department; and if she will make a statement; [3984]

(2) on what date a Green Minister was first appointed in her Department; when subsequent appointments were made; and if she will make a statement. [3970]

Hilary Benn: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my right hon. Friend the Minister for the Environment on 13 July 2001, Official Report, column 690W.

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Lord Ashcroft

Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if officials in her Department have been disciplined for passing documents relating to Michael Ashcroft and his activities in Belize to The Times and The Guardian in July 1999 and December 2000. [4056]

Hilary Benn: No.

Belize

Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development when KPMG sent letters to (a) Carlisle Holdings and (b) Sonisa during its study commissioned by her Department to review the regulation of offshore financial services in Belize and the effect of tax exemptions on pro-poor programmes; if she will place copies of these letters in the Library; and if she will make a statement. [4058]

Hilary Benn: I understand that KPMG wrote to Carlisle Holdings on 25 August in response to their letters of 10 and 18 August 2000. I am not aware of any KPMG correspondence with Sonisa. The correspondence is private to the parties concerned.

Debt Relief

Dr. Tonge: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what progress she plans to make with the process of debt relief at the G8 Summit in Genoa. [2291]

Hilary Benn: To date, 23 countries have qualified for exceptional debt relief under the Enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative. Relief totalling more than $53 billion will be provided to these countries, reducing their debts by more than two-thirds on average, and freeing up resources for spending on poverty reduction. At the G8 summit in Genoa, we will be urging our partners to push forward with implementation of the HIPC initiative, so that more countries will qualify for relief. However, making substantial progress will be difficult, as many of the remaining HIPC countries are affected by conflict.

Debt relief is only one part of what will be required by developed and developing countries alike if poverty is to be reduced and the International Development targets set for 2015 to be met. The Italian Government, which hold the Presidency of the G8 in 2001, have already issued a paper to be discussed at the Genoa summit entitled "Beyond Debt Relief"—which sets out some of the other key areas in which progress needs to be made: trade reform, generating investment and improving the quantity and quality of spending on health and education. These are all important issues for poverty reduction which can be taken forward effectively at international level through the G8 forum.

Commonwealth Development Corporation

Dr. Tonge: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if she will list, for each

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of the last three years, the deals established by the Commonwealth Development Corporation broken down by (a) country and (b) project. [2285]

Clare Short: The table summarises the number of deals completed by CDC in 1998, 1999 and 2000, distinguished by country. These include those where deals had previously been made in the same project.

Country	1998	1999	2000
Africa (pan)	1	0	1
Argentina	0	0	2
Asia Pacific (pan)	0	0	1
Bangladesh	0	1	0
Barbados	0	1	0
Belize	2	3	1
Bolivia	2	1	2
Caribbean	0	1	1
China	0	0	2
Costa Rica	5	4	4
Cote d'Ivoire	1	1	0
Cuba	1	1	0
Dominican Republic	2	1	3
Ecuador	0	1	0
El Salvador	0	0	1
Ghana	1	3	1
Guatemala	0	0	1
Guyana	0	1	0
India	8	0	0
Indonesia	0	3	2
Jamaica	0	1	0
Kenya	4	1	3
Malawi	0	1	0
Mauritius	1	0	0
Mexico	0	0	1
Mozambique	2	0	0
Nicaragua	0	1	0
Nigeria	0	0	1
Papua New Guinea	1	2	1
Pakistan	2	0	0
Peru	0	2	2
Philippines	2	0	0
South Africa	4	3	2
Sri Lanka	0	1	0
Swaziland	2	2	0
Tanzania	7	4	4
Thailand	2	1	0
Uganda	2	0	0
Zambia	3	1	3
Zimbabwe	2	2	0

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A full list, detailed by project and country, will be placed in the Library.

NORTHERN IRELAND

Spoiled Ballot Papers

Mr. Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many spoiled ballot papers there were in each district council area in Northern Ireland in the (a) most recent and (b) 1997 local elections. [3413]

Mr. Browne: The number of spoilt ballot papers received in each district council area in Northern Ireland in the (a) latest and (b) 1997 local elections are:

	2001			1997
District council	Number of spoilt votes	Percentage of total vote	Total votes polled	Number of spoilt votes	Percentage of total vote	Total votes polled
Derry	1,390	2.81	49,435	939	2.23	42,145
Limavady	239	1.55	15,455	193	1.45	13,287
Coleraine	491	1.97	24,986	348	1.80	19,314
Ballymoney	268	2.09	12,826	182	1.88	9,681
Moyle	187	2.51	7,438	126	2.03	6,201
Larne	342	2.42	14,161	236	2.37	9,938
Ballymena	510	1.74	29,346	403	1.76	22,942
Magherafelt	429	1.87	22,882	326	1.60	20,371
Cookstown	360	1.89	19,086	307	1.72	17,900
Strabane	457	2.08	21,919	352	1.80	19,587
Omagh	599	2.20	27,233	575	2.51	22,920
Fermanagh	650	1.98	32,837	505	1.72	29,329
Dungannon	497	1.74	28,491	409	1.64	25,008
Craigavon	988	2.43	40,633	573	1.84	31,076
Armagh	552	1.81	30,514	386	1.45	26,553
Newry and Mourne	1,263	2.70	46,829	943	2.49	37,899
Banbridge	329	1.57	20,897	220	1.35	16,275
Down	677	2.22	30,560	383	1.65	23,192
Lisburn	1,085	2.27	47,844	575	1.75	32,780
Antrim	501	2.42	20,739	258	1.78	14,523
Newtownabbey	938	2.61	35,973	437	1.86	23,473
Carrickfergus	376	2.38	15,794	177	1.61	10,960
Northdown	782	2.35	33,279	360	1.88	19,167
Ards	652	2.88	22,606	405	2.02	20,004
Caslereagh	809	0.57	31,491	432	2.03	21,265
Belfast	4,106	3.25	126,294	2,948	2.69	109,402
Total	19,477	2.41	809,548	12,998	2.01	645,192

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Mr. Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many spoiled ballot papers were received in each constituency in Northern Ireland at the (a) 2001 and (b) 1997 general elections. [3414]

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Mr. Browne: The number of spoiled ballot papers received in each constituency in Northern Ireland at the (a) 2001 and (b) general elections are:

	2001			1997
Constituency name	Number of spoilt votes	Percentage of total vote	Total votes polled	Number of spoilt votes	Percentage of total vote	Total votes polled
Belfast, North	377	0.91	41,309	128	0.31	41,580
Belfast, South	233	0.61	38,185	244	0.61	39,728
Belfast, East	202	0.55	37,031	125	0.32	39,154
Belfast, West	716	1.72	41,698	238	0.52	46,123
North Antrim	328	0.66	36,327	115	0.25	46,301
South Antrim	196	0.44	44,354	148	0.37	40,343
East Antrim	327	0.98	40,268	90	0.26	34,437
East Londonderry	399	0.99	49,545	112	0.29	38,214
Foyle	495	1.00	49,374	219	0.25	48,034
Lagan Valley	281	0.61	46,222	133	0.46	44,443
Upper Bann	339	0.66	51,376	120	0.30	47,907
South Down	574	1.09	52,648	248	0.25	49,734
Newry and Armagh	587	1.04	56,208	228	0.43	53,503
Mid-Ulster	452	0.90	50,388	154	0.30	50,823
Fermanagh and South Tyrone	693	1.32	52,667	377	0.77	48,667
West Tyrone	434	0.89	48,964	260	0.56	46,535
North Down	188	0.50	37,377	97	0.26	36,653
Strangford	217	0.50	43,471	87	0.20	41,703
Total	7,038	0.86	817,412	3,120	0.39	793,882

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