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Gibraltar
Mr. George Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what estimate he has made of the annual cost of the United Kingdom's role and responsibilities in Gibraltar. [31873]
Peter Hain: The main costs arising from the UK's role and responsibilities in Gibraltar fall to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Ministry of Defence. The approximate cost to the two Departments in the financial year 2000–01 was £63.5 million. £3.5 million of this total was the cost of maintaining the Governor's office, the cost of the staff in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office dealing directly with Gibraltar, and also funding for projects and secondments under the Gibraltar Project Fund. The remainder of the cost was attributable to Commander British Forces Gibraltar.
Contracts
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many contracts were let by his Department and agencies for which he is responsible to (a) PWC Consulting or PricewaterhouseCoopers, (b) Ernst & Young, (c) Deloitte & Touche, (d) KPMG and (e) Andersen for consultancy services for the financial years (i) 1997–98, (ii) 1998–99, (iii) 1999–2000, (iv) 2000–01 and (v) 2001 to the latest date for which figures are available, indicating the remuneration in each case. [33849]
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Mr. MacShane: The number of contracts let by FCO and its agency to these companies and the payments to each of them over the period concerned is as follows:
(i) Ernst and Young: 4 contracts:
| Year | £ |
|---|---|
| 1997–98 | nil |
| 1998–99 | 58,441 |
| 1999–2000 | 55,107 |
| 2000–01 | nil |
| 2001–02 | 4,700 |
| Year | £ |
|---|---|
| 1997–98 | nil |
| 1998–99 | nil |
| 1999–2000 | 308,874 |
| 2000–01 | 4,093,390 |
| 2001–02 | 2,013,554 |
(iii) PWC Consulting/PricewaterhouseCoopers: 1 contract:
| Year | £ |
|---|---|
| 1997–98 | nil |
| 1998–99 | 759,520 |
| 1999–2000 | 54,337 |
| 2000–01 | nil |
| 2001–02 | nil |
No contracts were awarded to Deloitte & Touche or Andersen during this period.
Departmental Events
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list the (a) conferences, (b) seminars, (c) workshops, (d) exhibitions and (e) press conferences which have been sponsored by his Department and which took place on non-departmental premises in each of the last four years, giving the title, purpose, date and cost of each. [34183]
Mr. MacShane: The information requested is not held centrally by any one department in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and could be collected only at disproportionate cost.
Entertainment Costs
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1) if he will list, for 1997–98 and for each subsequent financial year, the amount spent (a) in the United Kingdom and (b) abroad by (i) his Department, (ii) its agencies and (iii) its non-departmental public bodies on (1) providing mobile telephone equipment, including handsets and other associated equipment, (2) telephone calls made using such equipment and (3) telephone calls made using privately owned mobile telephones but subsequently reclaimed by (x) Ministers and (y) staff; [34391]
- (2) if he will list for 1997–98 and for each subsequent financial year, including the current year to date, the amount spent by (a) his Department, (b) its agencies and
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- (c) its non-departmental public bodies on (i) food and (ii) alcohol, indicating how much was spent on guests, and how much in respect of (A) Ministers and (B) staff, broken down to show how much was provided directly by his Department and how much reclaimed. [34449]
Mr. MacShane: Information is not held in the form required and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Publications
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list the publications issued by his Department in each of the last four years; and what the (a) circulation, (b) cost and (c) purpose of each was. [34190]
Mr. MacShane: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 11 December 2001, Official Report, column 825W and to the answer I gave the hon. Member for Moray (Angus Robertson) on 10 December 2001, Official Report, column 627W.
Details of current FCO publications are available on a dedicated website at www.informationfrombritain.com.
It would incur disproportionate cost to list the circulation and unit costs of all individual publications for the four years.
Trade Deals (India)
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what trade deals were (a) discussed and (b) finalised during the Prime Minister's recent visit to India. [35860]
Mr. Bradshaw: During the recent visit to India by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister a number of trade issues were discussed. He gave the keynote speech at the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) conference in Bangalore and signed the New Delhi Declaration with Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee which highlighted the success of the growth, to £5 billion a year, of bilateral trade since the Indo-British Partnership was introduced in 1993. The declaration stated that we will focus together on key sectors where we share world class expertise, such as IT and healthcare, and announced the plan by the CII and CBI to hold a major economic seminar in London in July 2002 involving senior CEOs from both countries, to look at the global challenges we face together and to explore future opportunities for enhancing the trade and investment relationship.
The Prime Minister discussed a number of defence and security matters while in India, including defence export opportunities. The Government continue to support the proposals that BAE Systems has made for the supply of Hawk jets to India.
Western Sahara
Jeremy Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations have been made to the Government of France concerning oil exploration licences in the western Sahara by French companies; and if he will make a statement. [36615]
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Mr. Bradshaw: The issue of contracts for oil exploration in western Sahara signed by Morocco with US and French companies was referred by the President of the United Nations Security Council to the United Nations legal adviser, who concluded that the specific contracts at issue were "not in themselves illegal".
This matter has not been raised with the French Government.
Jeremy Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what meetings he and his officials have had with representatives of the Government of Morocco to discuss the occupation of the western Sahara; and if he will make a statement. [36625]
Mr. Bradshaw: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs met His Excellency Mohammed Benaissa, the Foreign Minister of Morocco, during his visit to the UK on 21 February 2002.
They discussed the situation in western Sahara. My right hon. Friend stated our position: that we continue to support the efforts of James Baker, the Personal Envoy of the United Nations Secretary General, in trying to find a just and durable resolution to the dispute.
Jeremy Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what the expenditure in each of the past five years by the UK Government have been on the western Sahara people by (a) bilateral projects, (b) UN arrangements and (c) direct funding; and what is expected for the next financial year. [36627]
Mr. Bradshaw: UK Government expenditure on the western Sahara people under UN arrangements for the past five years is as follows:
| £ | |
|---|---|
| 1996–97 | 641,173 |
| 1997–98 | 934,360 |
| 1998–99 | 2,369,371 |
| 1999–2000 | 1,014,550 |
| 2000–01 | 1,984,177 |
In the next financial year, the expenditure is expected to be £2,018,815.
I refer my hon. Friend to the Secretary of State for International Development for information on expenditure on the other categories.
Jeremy Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions he and his officials have had with the UN Secretary-General and his special representative concerning the future of the western Sahara; and if he will make a statement. [36626]
Mr. Bradshaw: The Secretary-General recently reported to the UN Security Council on his continuing discussions with the parties in the dispute concerning western Sahara. In these discussions he has been supported by James Baker his Personal Envoy.
He observed that the parties, despite assertions to the contrary, had not been willing to co-operate with the UN either to implement the Settlement Plan or to try a 'political solution' to their dispute. He set out four options
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and recommended that the council extend MINURSO's mandate for two months while these were considered. The options were:
The UN could try and resume implementation of the Settlement Plan, but without requiring the concurrence of the parties before action could be taken. The UN could still face the same problems it had already encountered and might not be able to hold a free and fair referendum whose results would be accepted by both sides. There remained the issue that there was no enforcement mechanism set out in the plan.
Mr. James Baker, the Personal Envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General, could revise the draft Framework Agreement, taking into account the concerns expressed by the parties. But Mr. Baker would not seek their concurrence. The revised draft would be submitted to the council, and would then be presented to the parties on a non-negotiable basis.
The council could ask Mr. Baker to explore with the parties one final time whether they would be willing to discuss a possible division of the territory, under his usual negotiating rule of nothing agreed until everything was agreed. If this option were chosen and the parties were unwilling to agree to a division by 1 November 2002, Mr. Baker should be asked to show the parties a proposal for division of the territory that would also be presented to the council. The council would then present this to the parties on a non-negotiable basis. This approach would give each side some, but not all, of what it wanted and would follow the precedent, but not necessarily the territorial arrangements, of the division agreed to in 1976 between Morocco and Mauritania.
The council could decide to terminate MINURSO, thereby recognising and acknowledging that after more than 11 years and half a billion dollars expenditure that the UN was not going to solve the dispute without requiring that one or the other of the parties do something voluntarily that they did not wish to do.
In responding to the Secretary-General's report the UK will agree to the two month roll-over of the MINURSO mandate to allow consideration of the options. The UK position remains as previously stated, that we continue to support the efforts of Mr. Baker in trying to find a just and durable resolution to the dispute.
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