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INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Commission on Intellectual Property Rights

Syd Rapson: To ask the Minister of State, Department for International Development what steps are being taken to implement the recommendations of
 
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the Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, on protecting (a) the material in (i) gene banks and (ii) farmers' fields from being directly patented and (b) the rights of farmers to follow traditional practices of reusing, exchanging and informally selling seeds in developing countries. [125901]

Hilary Benn: Access to material in gene banks and in farmers' fields, and the criteria under which patents may be obtained on such material, is governed by national legislation. Under TRIPS, plants as such may be excluded from patentability, as also may conventional plant breeding processes. Plant varieties may be covered by patents or other effective sui generis protection systems. The criteria for patentability applying in most countries would prevent the direct patenting of material in farmers' fields.

The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, when it comes into effect, will establish a Multilateral System on Access and Benefit Sharing for a list of food and fodder plants. The ability to take out intellectual property rights on material in gene banks covered by the Treaty in the form received is specifically excluded.

The UK has signed the International Treaty and hopes to ratify it, together with all other EU member states, before the end of this year. It will come into effect 90 days after the 40th ratification of, or accession to, the Treaty. In its response to the Commission report, published in May, the government urged all other countries that have not yet done so to sign and ratify the Treaty as soon as possible.

The Government supports the right of developing countries to legislate to provide for the re-use, exchange and informal sale of seeds by farmers.

Debt Relief

Mr. Caton: To ask the Minister of State, Department for International Development how the Department will help ensure that the UK's beyond heavily indebted poor countries additional debt relief will be used to tackle poverty in indebted countries. [125816]

Hilary Benn: Before a country can qualify for debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative, it must produce an interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) at Decision Point—the first stage of the HIPC process—setting out what action it will take to develop a full PRSP. To reach Completion Point—the final stage when the relief becomes irrevocable—the full PRSP must be in place, and under implementation for at least one year. The PRSP sets out the policy action governments are taking to reduce poverty, and also provides a budgetary framework not only for spending the savings from debt relief but also for allocating all other aid and government revenue so that they have the greatest impact on poverty reduction.

We believe strongly in the value of the PRSP process, which is leading to improved economic management and social reform. The UK Government goes further than is required under HIPC and provides 100 per cent. debt relief to countries when they qualify for HIPC relief. In addition, all payments received by HMG from HIPC countries will be held in trust and returned to
 
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countries when they qualify for HIPC relief, so that they can invest more resources in poverty reduction programmes. For the 26 countries that have qualified for HIPC so far, spending on education and health in these countries is set to rise by some US$4 billion each year. On average, their debts will be reduced by around two-thirds, and social expenditure will be nearly four times higher than spending on debt servicing. The UK is also aligning its bilateral development assistance programmes with the PRSPs.

Departmental Costs

Mr. Flight: To ask the Minister of State, Department for International Development what the cost was to his Department for (a) ministerial cars and drivers, (b)   taxis, (c) train travel, (d) the use of helicopters, (e) airline tickets and (f) chartered aeroplanes in each year since 1997. [123090]

Hilary Benn: All official travel is undertaken in accordance with the rules contained in DFID's staff handbook. All ministerial travel is undertaken in accordance with the rules set out in the "Ministerial Code" and "Travel by Ministers", copies of which are available in the Libraries of the House.

Information on the costs of categories (a) ministerial cars and drivers and (f) chartered planes, in respect of ministerial travel, is being provided centrally by the Cabinet Office in response to a parallel question. The detailed information requested for category (d) is not separately recorded and could be provided only at disproportionate cost but is likely to be small.

For category (b) DFID currently has two taxi contracts, with a combined cost for 2002 of £108,211. We do not hold central records of taxi costs paid to other companies and claimed for by individual members of staff.

For categories (c) and (e), for bookings made in the UK through DFID's HQ-based travel implant, the cost to DFID during the last three calendar years was:
Cost of rail and airline bookings £

	2000	2001	2002
Rail	265,00	308,000	346,000
Airlines	7.900,000	8,400,000	9,800,000

The figures for categories c) and e) do not include spending on travel by overseas offices, booked through an overseas travel agent:

Kenya

Mr. Dodds: To ask the Minister of State, Department for International Development if he will list the educational projects in Kenya which have received funding from his Department (a) directly and (b) indirectly in 2002–03. [125550]

Hilary Benn: DFID provided direct funding for two education projects in Kenya in 2002–03; the Education for Empowerment project, and the Strengthening Primary Education project (Phase 3). DFID also provides funding for education through multilateral
 
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channels, but information on this is not available centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Montserrat

Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Minister of State, Department for International Development (1) what the average waiting time for hospital treatment is in Montserrat; [126065]

(2) how many people there are on a hospital waiting list in Montserrat; [126068]

(3) how many doctors there are per head of population in Montserrat. [126064]

Hilary Benn: The government of Montserrat are responsible for health matters on island. However, due to the recent volcanic events on Montserrat, it is not possible to provide an answer to the above questions in the time available. I will write to the hon. Member as soon as possible.

Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Minister of State, Department for International Development what the average class size is in Montserrat, broken down by age group. [126066]

Hilary Benn: The Government of Montserrat is responsible for education matters on the island. However, due to recent volcanic events on Montserrat, it is not possible to provide an answer to the above question in the time available. I will write to the hon. Member as soon as possible.

Non-governmental Organisations

Mr. Caton: To ask the Minister of State, Department for International Development what plans the Department has to facilitate the development of mutually beneficial partnerships between donors and non-governmental organisations working to assist people in developing nations. [125817]

Hilary Benn: DFID has significant involvement with a wide range of NGOs and other civil society organisations. In 2001–02, we entered into funding partnerships with over 130 UK based NGOs providing financial support of over £190 million. These partnerships involve working in a wide variety of ways, ranging from humanitarian assistance to Partnership Programme Agreements, which are strategic agreements that provide support for mutually agreed development objectives.

There are regular meetings with British Overseas NGOs for Development (BOND), the umbrella membership organisation representing UK NGOs active in international development, and individual NGOs to discuss issues of policy and procedures.

DFID officials are active participants at the EC Member States Working Group on NGO co-financing, that is considering how best to build mutually beneficial partnerships with NGOs. We also maintain relations with other donors, both centrally and through our various offices in the developing world.
 
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