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DEFENCE
Ministry of Defence (Annual Report and Accounts)
The Secretary of State for Defence (Mr. Geoffrey Hoon): Information about the Ministry of Defence's performance during the last financial year is contained in the Ministry of Defence Annual Report and Accounts for 2002–03, which will be laid before the House today as HC 1125.
Copies will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses and it will also be available on the Ministry of Defence website.
FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS
Opium Poppy Crop (Afghanistan)
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr. Bill Rammell): The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime released its survey results for the 2003 opium poppy crop in Afghanistan on 29 October. The survey showed that opium poppy cultivation increased by 8 per cent. from 74,000 hectares in 2002 to 80,000 hectares in 2003 while production rose by 6 per cent. from 3,400 tonnes in 2002 to 3,600 tonnes in 2003. The UN survey also revealed that cultivation in traditional areas—where the Afghan Government has been able to exert control—decreased and moved into more marginal areas.
The UK uses the UN survey, which is produced in partnership with the Afghan Government, as a reference point for its work as the lead nation on counter-narcotics support in Afghanistan. While the increase in opium cultivation and production is unwelcome, it is not unexpected. Experience of counter-narcotic policies in other countries, such as Pakistan and Thailand, shows that cultivation tends to increase before declining. Production also tends to move from traditional areas to more marginal and inaccessible areas to protect crops against law enforcement activity. Reductions in the traditional areas demonstrates that drug control policy has been effective where the Afghan Government has been able to exert control. Increasing security and stability in Afghanistan remains key to progress in reducing opium production.
Afghanistan's national drug control strategy, agreed earlier this year, has set the target of eliminating opium poppy by 2013. The UK is investing £70 million on sustainable measures over the next three years to support implementation of that strategy; additional staff are being deployed to Kabul to assist in the implementation. Other nations are also contributing, either directly or indirectly, to counter-narcotics work in Afghanistan, complementing the UK's efforts. I will be co-hosting, with President Karzai and the United Nations, an international conference in Kabul in February next year to boost further the international counter-narcotics effort in Afghanistan.
Iraq
The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr. Jack Straw): In response to an oral question from the right hon. Member for Sleaford and
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North Hykeham (Mr. Hogg) on 14 October 2003, Official Report, column 9, I undertook to inform the House of the costs of the United Kingdom's involvement in Iraq. They are as follows: Military Costs The Chancellor has set aside £3 billion for military operations in Iraq. The Ministry of Defence has drawn down £1 billion from this special reserve during the 2003 Spring Supplementary Estimates. From this amount, the cost of preparatory activity in the 2002–03 financial year is currently estimated to have been £700 million. Further information on the total net additional cost of the military operation during the 2002–03 financial year will be found in the Ministry of Defence's Resource Account for 2002–03, which is due to be published around the end of October.
For the current financial year, further sums have been drawn down from the special reserve. These are subject to scrutiny by HM Treasury and Parliament through the normal estimates process. Reconstruction Her Majesty's Government plan to spend a total of £544 million on reconstruction in Iraq for the three years from April 2003, including our contribution to EC assistance and our secondment of personnel to the coalition provisional authority. Other Costs The Foreign and Commonwealth Office spent £5.62 million on additional security at posts in the Middle East during 2002–03, and expects to spend a further £1.3 million in this financial year on security costs at posts directly attributable to our action in Iraq.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office estimates that it will have spent up to £12.1 million on the British Office in Baghdad and other bilateral representation by the end of this financial year.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office forecasts a further £1.8 million of Iraq-related costs outside Iraq during this financial year. Future Costs Her Majesty's Government have not so far committed any other amounts in connection with the United Kingdom's involvement in Iraq.
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It is too early to predict the continuing costs of military deployment, support for the Coalition Provisional Authority and development of bilateral relations with Iraq beyond the end of this financial year.
CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS
Unified Courts Agency
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs (Mr. Christopher Leslie): The Secretary of State and I have carefully considered all the representations made to us about the location of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight within the structure of the new courts agency. We have focused on what produces the best justice system for the public in the South East and South West regions. A number of submissions have been made to us on the administration of justice if Hampshire were to be part of the South East region. We acknowledge that making a change at this stage would raise a number of potentially difficult issues for the Judiciary and the Bar, which could impact on the administration of justice for the public. In addition we have received representations from partner criminal justice agencies locally to the effect that from their perspective change would not bring significant benefit.
The established Government policy of aligning public bodies with the Government regions is important and can potentially bring significant benefits to the administration of justice. However the immediate benefits of that policy do not, currently, justify realigning Hampshire and the Isle of Wight in the South East region. Taking account of the widespread strength of feeling, we have decided not to realign Hampshire and the Isle of Wight at this time. As the regional agenda develops, however, we believe there may well be a much clearer case for realignment and we will therefore reconsider this issue in 2006–07.
In reviewing the distribution of business across Hampshire, Dorset and Wiltshire, we have decided that in order to provide a better service for court users in Dorset that subject to the views of the senior judiciary Bournemouth Crown Court should become a first tier centre. This would mean that serious cases from Dorset could be tried more conveniently—clearly a benefit for victims and witnesses in the area.