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MINISTER FOR WOMEN

Gender Pay Gap

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Minister for Women what steps she has taken to reduce the pay gap; and what evaluation she has made of the success of those steps. [152066]

Ms Hewitt: The pay gap is a complex issue and the Government have limited direct levers to reduce it. However, the Government have taken a number of steps to address the underlying causes including promoting pay reviews by providing business with the tools to undertake them, leading the way through Civil Service pay reviews, introducing the Equal Pay Questionnaire and increasing support for child care, flexible working and work-life balance.

It is extremely difficult to measure the impact of Government policy on the gender pay gap. Latest figures show that the gender pay gap closed by 1 percentage point to 18 per cent. on the mean measure, and stands at 12.9 per cent. on the median measure.

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Minister for Women what assessment she has made of the implications of the gender pay gap for levels of female employment. [152067]

Ms Hewitt: I have not made any specific assessment of the implications of the gender pay gap for levels of female employment. The employment rate for women in the UK currently stands at 70 per cent., well above the EU average and above the Lisbon target for the female employment rate of 60 per cent.

What research has shown is that higher levels of female employment tend to be associated with larger gender pay gaps. For example Eurostat figures show that the EU country with the lowest gender pay gap, Italy, also has one of the lowest female employment rates in the EU at just 42 per cent., nearly 30 percentage points below the UK's.

Informed Choice/Extending Working Lives Programme

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Minister for Women if she will make a statement on the work of the (a) Informed Choice programme and the (b) Extending Working Lives programme. [150146]

Malcolm Wicks: I have been asked to reply.

I refer my hon. Friend to the Written Ministerial Statement issued today by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, at column 33WS.

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INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Agricultural Research

Mr. Mates: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how, following the grant to the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research in December 2003, he will ensure that there is parallel continuity for the bilateral centrally-funded research programmes upon which developing countries have been relying for capacity building and poverty-eradicating applied research; and whether he is providing bilateral funds for such strategic activity. [152719]

Hilary Benn: I was pleased to announce in December 2003 an additional £30 million over the next three years for the work of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. The UK is an active member of the Group and will continue to play a full part in its efforts to mobilise agricultural science to reduce poverty. This funding is additional to the bilateral research programme. I expect to maintain a strong bilateral programme into the future with a clear focus on the millennium development goals.

Benefit Fraud

Mr. Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many staff in his Department have been (a) investigated, (b) suspended, (c) dismissed, (d) prosecuted and (e) convicted for involvement in benefit fraud in each of the last six years; and what the amounts involved were in each of the cases listed. [152424]

Mr. Gareth Thomas: DFID does not hold a central record of the information requested. I can confirm, however, that the Department is not aware of any of its staff having been involved in benefit fraud in any way within the last six years.

Direct Budget Support

Tony Baldry: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps his Department will take in relation to budget support to identify trends in where the Department's money is being spent. [152084]

Hilary Benn: By its nature general budget support cannot be explicitly tracked once it reaches the recipient country budget. Sector budget support can be clearly classified at the broad level, although how this is subsequently distributed between sub sectors is not always known. For example, we may not be able to say how much of our support to the education sector in a particular country is spent on basic education.

However to inform our understanding of where DFID aid flows are being directed, we are developing a method whereby budget support will be notionally classified by extrapolation from the recipient country's own budget plans. So, for example, if the Government were planning to spend 30 per cent. of its budget ¹ on education, then 30 per cent. of our budget support to that country would be classified as expenditure on education. All reporting will state clearly that figures are based on notional allocations derived from budget plans and are therefore only indicative. Some data are already available along these lines.

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In the longer term we will seek to agree a standard methodology with other donor agencies facing similar problems.

¹ The extrapolation would only reflect that part of the budget which was for developmental purposes.

Tony Baldry: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of direct budget support in Uganda. [152086]

Hilary Benn: The UK's current budget support arrangement in Uganda began in 2000. Its purpose is to support continued growth and economic stability, to reduce inequality, and to improve the impact of public spending in sectors that are key to poverty reduction and growth.

An internal Project Completion Report (PCR) of the arrangement was completed in September 2003. It concluded that our support had significantly achieved its purpose. The flexibility and predictability of our budget support, together with the role we play in policy dialogue and in providing technical assistance, were identified as important to this success. The strength of our partnerships with Government and also with other donors have also been crucial. Most macroeconomic targets have been met, and the share of Government spending on poverty programmes has increased significantly. The impact of this expenditure has been shown, for example, in growing primary education enrolment, and in important health indicators such as attendance at primary health care clinics. A recent 'stocktaking' review of the World Bank's Poverty Reduction Support Credit (PRSC), to which DFID's budget support is linked, has also reported positively on the PRSC budget support instrument.

DFID commissioned an independent evaluation study of direct budget support in 2002. The first phase of this study (December 2002) developed a framework for evaluation that could be applied widely, using Uganda as a particular example. It concluded that budget support had led to improvements in the efficiency of budget allocations, the effectiveness of state institutions, and the degree of public accountability. This work is being used as the basis of a more comprehensive joint donor evaluation of budget support that is now getting under way.

Tony Baldry: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what representations he has received from the National Audit Office on financial controls on direct budget support. [152087]

Hilary Benn: DFID works closely with the National Audit Office (NAO) to improve the value for money of the work we do. DFID worked with the NAO to develop and implement our corporate fiduciary risk policy. This is central to the appraisal and management of the risks associated with providing direct budget support.

The NAO recently undertook a review of the safeguards we have in place to prevent misappropriation and diversion of UK aid. This was an important opportunity to take a joint look at the full range of our

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financial controls, including how we manage the fiduciary risk of budget support. The review concluded that:

"DFID's work is well-regarded by its partners who acknowledge the leading and proactive role that DFID plays in tackling corruption issues."

It made a number of detailed recommendations which we have taken forward.

We will continue to work with the NAO in this area to ensure that we are able to maximise the developmental benefits associated with budget support.

North Korea

Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what the nature was of the £800,000 in bilateral aid from the UK to the People's Democratic Republic of Korea in 2001; and what the nature is of current UK bilateral aid to North Korea. [152404]

Mr. Gareth Thomas: The £800,000 was humanitarian assistance that was channelled through the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) to support the health care system through the distribution of drugs and basic medical equipment. Also in 2001–02, we provided £1,200,000 to support UNICEF's primary health care programme and £75,000 to the IFRC for emergency assistance to flood victims. In 2002–03, we provided £200,000 to the IFRC for its flood prevention work.

We have recently approved a grant of £1,023,000 to support UNICEF's work, in 2004, in primary health care, including improvements to the water and sanitation systems as well as essential medical supplies such as vaccinations.

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