| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
Child Trust Funds
9. Ms Meg Munn (Sheffield, Heeley): To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether building societies and other financial mutual organisations will be providers for the new child trust funds. [138332]
The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Ruth Kelly): Any firm with a relevant Financial Services Authority authorisation will be able to enter the market subject to meeting the requirements of the child trust fund regulations. We expect a wide range of providers to offer accounts.
Ms Munn : When setting any price cap for child trust funds, will the Government take account of the cost of administering savings for children and the need to raise awareness of the importance of saving? In particular, will they encourage providers to ensure that all families, particularly those with low incomes, benefit from the opportunity to save for their children?
Ruth Kelly: I agree with my hon. Friend. When I decided to allow all FSA-authorised firms to enter the market, I paid careful attention to the impact on financial mutuals and building societies and decided to allow them to participate as well.
My hon. Friend is right to mention the price cap. In view of the factors she cites, I have commissioned independent research from Deloitte Touche on the impact of the cap and its interaction with the target market. I shall publish it in due course.
Mr. David Laws (Yeovil): How much consultation is going on with other Departments? Is it true that the Home Secretary is even less enthusiastic about the Chancellor's proposals than the Chancellor is about his proposals for identity cards?
Ruth Kelly: I think the hon. Gentleman has completely misinterpreted the Home Secretary's position. He is a firm advocate of child trust funds.
Indeed, I shared a platform with him in Downing street to discuss the merits of the proposal. We have a once-in-a-generation chance to open up opportunities for poor children as well as those from wealthier backgrounds.
Mr. Nigel Beard (Bexleyheath and Crayford): Would my hon. Friend consider allowing parents who are eligible for the savings gateway to pay top-up amounts into the trust funds on the same terms?
Ruth Kelly: We have considered how to maximise the benefits for children from poorer families. We have decided both to make the policy universal—every child born after a certain date will have access to an endowment—and to concentrate Government resources on those who need them most. We have introduced a two-level endowment, which will apply at birth and when the child reaches the age of seven. Up to 40 per cent. of children will be able to benefit.
Tim Loughton (East Worthing and Shoreham): Can the Minister answer a question that seems to be causing some confusion among her officials? Will the trust funds be taken into account in the calculation of benefits, and will they affect those benefits?
Ruth Kelly: We have made it absolutely clear that in the assessment of family benefits for the purpose of calculation, child trust funds will be disallowed.
Sustainable Development
10. Mr. Colin Challen (Morley and Rothwell): To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what discussions have been held with Departments regarding their sustainable development objectives in the forthcoming comprehensive spending round. [138334]
The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (John Healey): Departments will be required to consider sustainable development as part of the 2004 spending review process, as they were in 2002.
Mr. Challen : I am sure that my hon. Friend will study very carefully the Environmental Audit Committee report entitled "Greening Government", which was published earlier today. One of its key observations is that the public service agreements in Departments other than the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs have hardly any environmentally related targets at all. So will my hon. Friend and the Treasury put pressure on other Departments to increase the number of such targets in the next comprehensive spending review?
John Healey: I pay tribute to my hon. Friend's work on the Environmental Audit Committee, and to the work of the Committee itself. I should point out that we already have 14 departmental PSAs, deriving from the 2002 spending review, that incorporate sustainable development. But I shall indeed study his Committee's report carefully, and I will consider the case that he makes about targets. I shall of course then respond to the Committee, in full, in the normal way.
World Debt
11. Valerie Davey (Bristol, West): To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what recent discussions he has had with African Finance Ministers on debt and the millennium development targets. [138335]
The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr. Gordon Brown): To meet the millennium development goals, which include primary education for all by 2015 and the halving of poverty, we propose, in addition to the debt relief that we have given, the creation of an international finance facility that will provide $50 billion in additional finance per year. I am grateful to all parties in this House for their support for this proposal.
Valerie Davey : Many of my constituents especially value my right hon. Friend's commitment to this aspect of his work. Will he further explain the extent of the Government's support for development projects in Africa?
Mr. Brown: My hon. Friend takes a very keen interest in this issue and I thank her for that. We will raise aid to Africa to £1 billion a year, and that will be achieved before completion of this spending review, as the International Development Secretary announced last week. So more of the aid money that is being raised anyway is going to Africa, and more is going to anti-poverty programmes such as tackling illiteracy and tackling ill health. I believe that the partnership for Africa initiative is the right way forward, whereby, in return for African countries tackling corruption, pursuing policies for stability and opening up to investment, we provide the resources to enable them to tackle their problems. At the moment, the chances of meeting the millennium development goals are slim, unless we get the additional finance that we are proposing, through the international finance facility. So I hope that not only politicians but the churches, non-governmental organisations and others interested in the future of Africa will look at this proposal very carefully.
Richard Ottaway (Croydon, South): Following on from that point, if I may, I shall paraphrase one of the millennium goals, which is to stabilise world population growth by choice. The Chancellor will be well aware that the funding levels were agreed at the Cairo international conference on population action, in 1994. In the eyes of many, insufficient funding is going into population programmes; what is more, the question arises of whether it is going to the right agencies. Will the Chancellor undertake to review this matter, so that the millennium goals can be achieved?
Mr. Brown: This is not strictly a matter for the Treasury, as the hon. Gentleman knows, but I will report what he says to the International Development Secretary, who speaks for us on these matters. But whichever way he looks at it, the hon. Gentleman must know that population is going to rise. It is our duty to make sure that there is growth in African countries and in other developing countries by working with them to achieve the conditions for that growth. Such conditions include tackling corruption, ensuring macro-economic stability, and opening up to trade and investment. That
is what the Monterrey consensus was all about, but it will be achieved through partnership. In return, we must help those countries to solve the problems of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria; indeed, 2 million people a year are dying from tuberculosis, and 1 million are dying from malaria.Such problems are soluble, but those countries need the capacity to build health care systems, and in the end, they need the money that only the richest countries can provide at this stage. That is why the international finance facility—supported enthusiastically, I hope, on both sides of this House—can be useful not only if we can persuade other countries around the world to adopt it, but if we can work with Africa to implement it.
Lawrie Quinn (Scarborough and Whitby): On my right hon. Friend's discussions with African Finance Ministers, what is his assessment of the priority that they are giving to the need to ensure that every child in Africa gets at least primary-level education?
Mr. Brown: I am grateful to my hon. Friend, who has taken a huge interest in these matters. I met many African Finance Ministers only a few weeks ago under the chairmanship of the French Finance Minister, Mr. Mer. There will also be a meeting of African Finance Ministers in Paris in February to discuss the international finance facility. The priority attached to primary education is shown by the fact that 65 per cent. of the money released from debt relief is going into education and health. Uganda, for example, has made primary education free, which has increased enrolment by more than 50 per cent. in recent years. There are 120 million children around the world who do not go to school, but that problem can be overcome with an investment of about $10 billion a year, which is not a huge sum if the international community acts together. I believe that we should be prepared to make that finance available.
Sir Nicholas Winterton (Macclesfield): This is a very important question, and I am delighted that the Chancellor of the Exchequer is answering it. Could he advise the House and me what particular discussions he has had with African Ministers about the deteriorating and highly serious problem in Zimbabwe, not least because it is currently excluded from the Commonwealth? Dreadful problems are occurring in that country, and debt is rising. Could he tell the House what we are seeking to do to help the hard-pressed people of Zimbabwe?
Mr. Brown: I discuss that matter regularly with Finance Ministers around Africa, but the hon. Gentleman will understand that the precise policies pursued by the Government are a matter for the Foreign Secretary, who will discuss these matters with the rest of the Commonwealth very soon. I met the South African Finance Minister only a few weeks ago and that subject was on the agenda. One significant problem is that HIV/AIDS affects the whole of the southern part of Africa—24 million people in Africa either are infected or are likely to be infected. Some initiatives, including one through the WTO, have been taken on pharmaceuticals, and have proved beneficial. The hon. Gentleman knows that there is a long way to go, and we
need all-party co-operation here and the help of other countries so that we can increase the resources and the capacity of health care systems to cope.
| Next Section
| Index | Home Page |