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World Bank/IMF
12. Ann McKechin (Glasgow, Maryhill): To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on new agreements arising from the annual World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings to allow greater diversity and representation of poor countries on the boards of (a) the World Bank and (b) the IMF. [138336]
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Mr. Paul Boateng): The Government welcome recent developments at the Dubai annual meetings, when Ministers committed themselves to improve the capacity of developing country representatives and asked the World Bank and the IMF to look further at those countries' level of representation within those institutions.
Ann McKechin : I thank my right hon. Friend for his reply. However, does he agree that, if the IMF and World Bank are to take decisions that best reflect the development needs of the world's poorest nations, there is a need for a better balance between richer and poorer nations in the voting structure? The WTO, for example, allows for equal votes, and the voice of the developing nations is now being heard loud and clear.
Mr. Boateng: My hon. Friend, who takes a close interest in these matters, makes a very fair point about the balance of representation. That is why we are working to achieve a consensus in that regard, building on the pledge in our White Paper of 2000 and on the progress made at Monterrey. Building consensus is not easy, but we believe that a 25th seat on the IMF and the World Bank's board for sub-Saharan Africa is an option that ought to be explored and given serious consideration. We are working hard to that end.
Mr. John Battle (Leeds, West): My right hon. Friend will know that at the present rate of international aid, six out of eight of the millennium development goals are unlikely to be met until half way through the next century. What conversations have taken place at the IMF and World Bank to give support to the Chancellor's initiative for an international finance facility, which would boost immediate assistance and help to get those targets back on track?
Mr. Boateng: My right hon. Friend the Chancellor works closely with others on those issues, not least with the faith communities, which have a crucial role to play.
That is why the recently announced support of the Vatican and His Holiness for the IFF was a particular help in taking that agenda forward. The issue was discussed recently with leaders of the World Bank and the IMF in Madrid. As a result of my right hon. Friend the Chancellor's initiative, the World Bank and the IMF are carrying out studies and we are hopeful of increasing recognition on the part of donor nations that we have to do more and that the IFF is our best hope of achieving that. The example that this House sets of genuine bipartisan support for that mechanism is one that other nations, especially donor nations, might well follow.
Mr. Tam Dalyell (Linlithgow): Treasury Ministers have an outstanding record in helping developing countries, but is that record being damaged in any way by the increasing commitments to Iraq and, in particular, are the reports—
Mr. Speaker: Order. My apologies for interrupting, but we have arrived at question 15. The hon. Gentleman should ask the Minister for the reply to that question.
Mr. Boateng: I take the point that the Father of the House makes and—
Mr. Speaker: Order. On the Order Paper, we have reached question 15. Question 14 has been withdrawn.
Iraq
15. Mr. Tam Dalyell (Linlithgow): To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to his Answer of 30th October to the hon. Member for Nottingham, South (Alan Simpson), Official Report, column 311W, on Iraq, when he expects to be able to provide the total cost of the military campaign in Iraq. [138340]
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Mr. Paul Boateng): The Chancellor announced in the Budget that £3 billion has been set aside to cover the cost of operations in Iraq. It would be premature to anticipate the total cost of the military operations at this time.
Mr. Dalyell : Is it true that the commitment to the Amazon rainforest and other developing country commitments have been seriously damaged by an increasing commitment to the finances for Iraq?
Mr. Boateng: No, the project that we are funding will be completed, as my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Development has made clear. No announcements that we have made in relation to Iraq, and the funding of operations there, will affect the UK's firm commitment to increase aid in poor countries. That we are determined to do and are doing. I welcome the support of the Father of the House for that objective.
Business of the House
12.31 pm
Mr. Oliver Heald (North-East Hertfordshire): Will the Leader of the House please give us the business for next week?
The Leader of the House of Commons (Mr. Peter Hain): The business for next week will be as follows:
Monday 17 November—Consideration of Lords amendments to the Courts Bill [Lords], followed by money resolution relating to the Anti-Social Behaviour Bill, followed by consideration of Lords amendments to the Anti-Social Behaviour Bill, followed, if necessary, by further Commons consideration of Lords amendments.
Tuesday 18 November—Consideration of Lords amendments, followed by consideration of Lords amendments to the Criminal Justice Bill, followed, if necessary, by further consideration of Lords amendments.
Wednesday 19 November—Consideration of Lords amendments. Consideration of Lords amendments to the Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill, followed, if necessary, by further consideration of Lords amendments.
Thursday 20 November—Consideration of Lords amendments.
The House will be prorogued when Royal Assent to all Acts has been signified.
The House may like to be reminded that my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer has just announced that the pre-Budget report will be on Wednesday 10 December.
Mr. Heald: May I begin by paying a warm tribute to my predecessor? [Hon. Members: "Hear, hear."] Apparently, several other right hon. and hon. Members wish to join in that tribute. My right hon. Friend the Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Mr. Forth) brought his own inimitable style to these occasions. He apologises for not being here today, but he is at another parliamentary occasion. However, he promises that he will be back on these occasions, week after week. I cannot promise that I will tease the Leader of the House as much as my right hon. Friend did, but I will try to hold the right hon. Gentleman just as firmly to account.
Last week, the Leader of the House was asked whether arrangements could be made for the President of the United States to address both Houses of Parliament. Will the right hon. Gentleman accept that the House has the right to expect such an event, and will he explain what is being done about that?
On a more sombre note, the right hon. Gentleman will have seen the widespread reports about the handling of child abuse allegations in Islington and, more particularly, the insulting and demeaning way in which victims have been treated. May we have an urgent debate on that vital issue?
The local government settlement is a matter of great concern among hon. Members on both sides of the House, especially following the swingeing increases in council taxes that were forced on local authorities last
year. The right hon. Gentleman will know that the Local Government Association has already warned that next year there will be increases of more than £100 per home. Will he tell the House, therefore, whether that statement will be given next Tuesday, so that hon. Members may prepare? Will he accept a plea from me that it should not be given on Wednesday, when the business of the House will be taken up with contentious and difficult matters?Last week, workers who had lost their pensions and whose employers are insolvent held a meeting at the House. It was organised on an all-party basis, and workers, including workers from the former Allied Steel and Wire in Cardiff, gave moving accounts of how they had lost their life savings. On that occasion, the Minister for Pensions said that he was considering the matter. May we have a statement and a debate in Government time on what the Government are prepared to do to help them?
Finally, I want to ask about the Government's controversial identification card scheme—not the one for people, but the one for horses and donkeys. The Horse Passports (England) regulations were laid on 4 November, and are due to come into force on 30 November. I understand that the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments has not been able to consider the regulations. What advice does the Leader of the House have for Britain's horse and donkey owners? Should they trot off to obtain a passport, or should they rein back and await further news? I am sure that the right hon. Gentleman's predecessor would have been extremely concerned about the problem.
Mr. Hain: On the hon. Gentleman's last point, I understand that the problem is that we cannot get horses into photo booths.
I welcome the hon. Gentleman to his new post. I shall not offer him my full support, however, as I did that last week to his predecessor and it proved fatal. Even so, I join the hon. Gentleman in paying a warm tribute to his predecessor, who is a real treasure in the House of Commons. I look forward to him terrorising me from the Back Benches, just as he did from the Front Bench.
I should note that, these days, it is very hard not to be a Front Bencher in the Conservative parliamentary party. The sketch writer for The Guardian, Simon Hoggart, wrote earlier this week:
- "If you cut the ex-leaders, the very old and the certifiably insane, you need to have something startlingly wrong with you not be a Tory frontbencher these days."
The hon. Member for North-East Hertfordshire also asked about the difficulties of child abuse in Islington many years ago. Under the Minister for Children, in the past few months the Government have put together a policy that is the most rigorous and radical protection of children's rights that any Government of this country have ever devised. We intend to take that important policy forward.
The intention is that a statement on local authority settlements will be made next Wednesday. The hon. Member for North-East Hertfordshire will understand that all days are potentially busy at this especially fraught time of year, shortly before prorogation. Therefore, I do not accept that it would be better to have the statement on one day or another.
The hon. Member for North-East Hertfordshire is right that the question of pensions and insolvencies is very serious. I know, from my personal knowledge as Secretary of State for Wales, that the plight of the ASW workers in Cardiff is very serious. The Government want to offer what help we can, and we are introducing new legislation to that end on the back of the pensions Green Paper. I hope that the proposals will have the support of the Conservative Opposition.
As the hon. Gentleman knows, earlier this week the Home Secretary made a statement on the general question of identity cards.
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