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15 Jul 2003 : Column 181W—continued
Street Children
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Minister of State, Department for International Development how many street children there are in Asia; in which Asian countries they are located; and how many street children there are in each country. [123733]
Hilary Benn: It is difficult to provide accurate data on the overall numbers of street children in Asia or to provide a breakdown by country. Estimates are unreliable and coverage is patchy. According to UNICEF there are roughly about 25 million children estimated to be living on the streets in Asia. However there is no reliable information for many Asian countries. In India the Ministry of Social Welfare estimates that there are between 75,000 to 250,000 street
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children in Calcutta alone. UNICEF estimate there are 15,000 street children in Vietnam and 16,000 in Sri Lanka.
The fundamental cause of children living on the street is poverty. This is exacerbated by chronic hunger, lack of school places and family conflict. Between 30 per cent. to 50 per cent. of children in South Asia are malnourished. Despite improvements in education provision around 41 per cent. of children drop out of school before they reach the fifth grade. Between 30 per cent. to 55 per cent. of school age children are working. Many of these children are exploited through child labour or are involved in the sex industry. Unless these problems are addressed the problems of street children in Asia will continue to grow.
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 Asia; who this money is given to; and what the money is spent on. [123734]
Hilary Benn: Urban poverty, homelessness, lack of education and the demand for child labour forces children to leave their families and live on the streets in Asia. It is important that these underlying problems are addressed as well as helping street children directly. Our bilateral programmes in Asia aim to alleviate family poverty more generally as a basis for addressing the needs of street children.
Many of our programmes support NGO activities that advocate for the rights of children and work directly with street children. In Bangladesh we are supporting two NGOs to provide informal education to vulnerable working children in urban areas at a cost of £8 million. In Burma we have been supporting a street and working children project with World Vision a total cost of £450,000. In India we are supporting a local NGO to work with child street vendors and have several other small projects in the pipeline focusing on vulnerable working children in urban areas.
We are providing £1.6 million to Save the Children to work directly with vulnerable children in the Mekong sub region. This project aims to prevent poor rural children being trafficked to urban areas in the region for purposes of sexual exploitation and under age employment. This helps to reduce the potential for these children to end up on the street.
Other DFID activities also contribute indirectly to addressing the problems of street children. Improving basic education for every child is the main contribution that Asian Governments can make to reducing child poverty and indirectly to reducing the numbers of street children. Support to basic education is a major focus of our bilateral programme in Asia and in 2001–02 DFID committed £130 million to support this.
Another example is the £12 million urban poverty reduction project in Cochin in India that has helped to improve basic services for poor families and their children.
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Water and Sanitation Programmes
Joan Ruddock: To ask the Minister of State, Department for International Development what proportion of the Department's funds have been allocated for water and sanitation programmes in each year since 1998. [126080]
Hilary Benn: Presenting accurate data on expenditure for the water and sanitation sector is not straightforward. Reporting years and methods differ, especially between DFID's multilateral and bilateral partners, but we are working with our partners to improve the quality and hence the reliability of these data.
Over the last three years DFID has undertaken a detailed analysis of all projects to determine its total water related bilateral expenditure. This showed that total bilateral water expenditure was £82 million in 1999–2000, £91 million in 2000–01 and £87 million in 2001–02. This equates to 6.19 per cent., 6.43 per cent. and 5.77 per cent. respectively of DFID's total bilateral expenditure over this period. These amounts include bilateral expenditure on all aspects of water including emergency assistance and international water
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programmes, but exclude expenditure that may be allocated to the water sector from direct budget support and from multilateral funding.
We have only calculated figures using this method back to 1999–2000.
In 2001–02, DFID channelled £1.3 billion through multilateral organisations. DFID's contribution to multilateral spend on water and sanitation is estimated at around £40 million per year.
In 2001–02, DFID provided £296 million as general budget support to country governments (including sector support), which was 20 per cent. of our total bilateral programme and 10 per cent. of our entire programme. An internal exercise to allocate direct budget support notionally by sector concluded that only a small proportion (less than one per cent) went to the water sector.
Much of the above information is included in the National Audit Office review of DFID's work in the water sector (NAO Report No. HC351, 31 January 2003). DFID publishes details of its aid expenditure annually. Statistics on International Development which is available in the Library, also provides details of the volume, type, purpose and destination of all UK development assistance.
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CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT
Alcohol Advertising
Mr. Swire: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what plans she has to restrict the advertising of alcohol. [125144]
Miss Melanie Johnson: I have been asked to reply.
My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit, in close collaboration with other Government Departments, including the Department of Health, is currently developing the national alcohol harm reduction strategy. The Strategy Unit is due to publish an interim analysis paper in the summer and its final report setting out the cross-governmental alcohol harm reduction strategy in the autumn. The final report will consider a wide variety of issues including the advertising of alcohol.
British Overseas Territories
Mr. Pickthall: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what responsibilities her Department undertakes in connection with British Overseas Territories. [123899]
Mr. Caborn: DCMS has responsibilities under the UNESCO World Heritage Convention with regard to Henderson Island (South Pacific Ocean), Cough Island (South Atlantic Ocean) and the Historic Town of St. George, Bermuda, World Heritage Sites. This Department has also provided advice to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on Gibraltar's draft legislation relating to the Television Without Frontiers Directive (89/552/EEC as amended by 97/36/EC).
Civil List
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what functions have had funding transferred from the grant in aid budget to the Civil List since May 1997, broken down by the (a) function transferred, (b) date of transfer and (c) current annual sum involved. [122118]
Mr. Caborn: In April 2001 a transfer of responsibilities occurred between the Civil List and the Property Services Grant in Aid. The following were transferred from the grant in aid to the Civil List at a cost of £724,000, enabling the grant in aid to take over financial responsibility for the Court Post Office:
- congratulatory cards;
Gentlemen-at-arms and Yeomen of the Guard;
porter and non-domestic cleaners;
the Separate allocation, which is available to the Sovereign for use at her discretion for such things as furnishings; and
St. James's Palace state apartments.
Departmental Staff
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many staff of her Department were redeployed out of London and the south-east in the last five years. [125359]
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Mr. Caborn: No staff within the Department have been redeployed out of London and the south-east in the last five years.
IT Contracts
Mr. Flight: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many outsourced IT contracts have been signed by her Department in each year since 1997; how much each of these contracts is worth; with whom they are signed; how many have been renegotiated; how many are still in place; and if she will make a statement. [126205]
Mr. Caborn: DCMS has signed no IT outsourcing contracts since 1997.
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