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7 Jul 2003 : Column 579W—continued
INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Afghanistan
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Minister of State, Department for International Development whether his Department has provided funding to the provincial reconstruction teams for Afghanistan. [123640]
Hilary Benn: DFID has allocated £2 million as its contribution towards the UK Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) currently deploying to Mazar-e-Sharif. This funding is initially for a two-year period. It includes the cost of seconding a development advisor to the team and a budget for development projects in the local area.
DFID is ready to make a similar contribution to another PRT, probably led by the US.
Botswana
Angus Robertson: To ask the Minister of State, Department for International Development what assessment the Department has made of the (a) humanitarian, (b) economic and (c) cultural impact of forced removals of tribal groups from their tribal homelands in Botswana; and if he will make a statement. [123810]
Hilary Benn: Last year DFID commissioned a study on the situation of the San in Botswana and options for responses by the international community. The study, which has been placed in the House of Commons Library, sought to address the situation of the San in the context of broader poverty reduction issues in
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Botswana. We have shared it with the Government of Botswana and are now discussing with them how the conclusions of the study relate to their overall approach to poverty reduction.
Performance Targets
Dr. Tonge: To ask the Minister of State, Department for International Development how much the Department for International Development spent in each year since 2001 on the (a) Performance Reporting Information System for Management, (b) Multilateral Organisations' Performance Assessment Initiative and (c) Performance Assessment Network; if she will list the titles of their documents concerning the Department for International Development; and if he will place the documents in the Library. [122568]
Hilary Benn: The following amounts were spent on the Performance Reporting Information System for Management (PRISM):
| Financial year | £ |
|---|---|
| 2001–02 | 482,000 |
| 2002–03 | 306,000 |
As both the Multilateral Organisations' Performance Assessment Initiative and the Performance Assessment Network are discussion groups it is not possible to identify a specific allocation of funding for these activities. There are no official documents relating to either PRISM or these two discussion groups.
Russia
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Minister of State, Department for International Development how many street children there are in Russia; in which Russian republics they are; and how many street children there are in each republic. [123738]
Hilary Benn: There are no official statistics on street children in Russia and therefore no regional breakdown. The Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Development estimates that in 2002 there were approximately 10,100 street children in Russia. This is derived from records of the number of children admitted to state social care institutions in 2002.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Minister of State, Department for International Development how much aid his Department gives to tackle the problem of street children in Russia; who this money is given to; and what the money is spent on. [123739]
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Hilary Benn: DFID has two projects at regional level which support families and children at risk, including street children. These are:
- "Children at Risk in Sverdlovsk Oblast". The project is being implemented by Everychild at a cost of £784,000. The project's duration is three and a half years, ending in September 2003; and
"Families and Children at Risk". This is a new project in Leningrad Oblast, with an expected value of £1,500,000 from autumn 2003 to the end of 2005. The implementing agency is yet to be determined.
TREASURY
Budget Surplus
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the (a) actual and (b) projected surplus is on the current budget; what the average surplus has been since 1999–2000; what the cyclically adjusted surplus is on the current budget; and what the public sector net debt is as a percentage of GDP from 2001 to 2008 (estimated). [124207]
Mr. Boateng: I refer my hon. Friend to Table 2.7 of Budget 2003 (HC 500, Session 2002–03).
Child Care Tax Credits
Mr. Flight: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much fraudulent claims for child care tax credit cost the Exchequer in each year since it was introduced. [86663]
Dawn Primarolo: The Inland Revenue's compliance strategy for new tax credits, which has been informed by the Department's experience with WFTC & DPTC including the study of a sample of WFTC and DPTC awards, will be placed in the House of Commons Library later this year.
Equitable Life
Lynne Jones: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make it his policy to publish the Penrose report on Equitable Life in full as soon as it is received. [123808]
Mr. Boateng: Lord Penrose's report will be published as soon as practicable after it is received.
It is the Government's intention to publish Lord Penrose's report in full if it is at all possible to do so. However, parts of the report may be subject to legal and commercial confidentiality restrictions. For example, it is a criminal offence for confidential information received by regulators in the course of their duties to be disclosed to a third party except under certain, narrowly specified, conditions.
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Financial Services Authority
Sue Doughty: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what guidelines his Department has issued regarding the appointment of directors to the Board of Directors of the Financial Services Authority. [123625]
Mr. Boateng: Schedule 1 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 states that the Treasury must appoint members to the FSA board. Treasury Ministers volunteered to follow The Commissioner for Public Appointments code of practice and adhere to these rules in making non-executive board appointments.
Sue Doughty: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the directors of the Financial Services Authority and their occupations. [123629]
Mr. Boateng: A list of the directors of the FSA board and their occupations can be found on pages 120 and 121 of the 2002/03 FSA annual report.
Tax Credits
Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his estimate is of the total amount of money lost through fraud in the system of tax credits for the latest year for which information is available; and if he will make a statement. [96609]
Dawn Primarolo: The Inland Revenue's compliance strategy for new tax credits, which has been informed by the Department's experience with WFTC and DPTC including the study of a sample of WFTC and DPTC awards, will be placed in the House of Commons Library later this year.
Mr. Howard: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many calls have been fielded by the working tax credit and child tax credit helpline in each month since April 2002. [111381]
Mr. Webb: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to his answers of 10 February 2003, Official Report, column 616W, on the tax credit helpline, if he will estimate the number of (a) calls received and (b) calls handled by the helpline in (i) February, (ii) March and (iii) April. [112724]
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many calls to the Inland Revenue's children's tax credit helpline have been abandoned (a) in total and (b) in each week since 1 April 2003. [118036]
Mrs. Calton: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the average number of calls to the public helpline from those applying for or querying tax credits was each week in the past two months. [119513]
Dawn Primarolo: [holding answer 12 may 2003]: The following table shows the number of calls to the child and working tax credits helpline for Great Britain that were (i) received, (ii) handled and (iii) abandoned in each month since January 2003. These figures are based on a common set of definitions and are the final figures for these.
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| (i) Received(3) | (ii) Handled(4) | (iii) Abandoned(5) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 2003 | 851,851 | 771,464 | 80,387 |
| February 2003 | 1,168,131 | 956,817 | 211,314 |
| March 2003 | 2,486,846 | 1,701,266 | 785,580 |
| April 2003 | 2,509,486 | 1,767,710 | 741,776 |
| May 2003 | 1,999,973 | 1,679,627 | 320,346 |
(3) Where the caller selected an option from the call steering menu and was put in a queue to speak to an adviser.
(4) Where the caller spoke to an adviser.
(5) That is, received but not handled.
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