---

Teachers' Pension Scheme

The Minister for School Standards (Mr. David Miliband): Parliamentary approval for additional resources of £111.8 million is being sought in a spring supplementary estimate for the Teachers' Pension Scheme. Pending that approval, expenditure estimated at £30 million will be met by a repayable cash advance from the Contingencies Fund.

The Teachers' Pension Scheme Fund is mged by the Department for Education and Skills and administered under contract by Capita Business Service Ltd. The Department's funding to Capita is completed on a daily basis with the funded amount being determined by the "net cash requirement" for payments that Capita makes on behalf of the Teachers' Pension Scheme.

Cash drawn down from the Consolidated Fund is greater at the beginning of each month because income and related cash arrives too late to fund this expenditure. To enable the Department to meet its funding obligations the £30 million will be required to make up the shortfall between the funding requirement and the Spring Supplementary Estimate provision becoming available.

5 Mar 2004 : Column 91WS

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Water Action Plan

The Secretary of State for International Development (Hilary Benn): I have placed in the Libraries of both Houses a copy of DFID's new Water Action Plan. It sets out how DFID will contribute to meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), through our commitments to water supply, sanitation and water resource mgement.

Over one billion people do not have access to safe water to drink. Over two billion lack adequate sanitation. Hundreds of millions of people live in areas where there is an overall and increasing shortage of water. Polluted ecosystems and poor water mgement have a detrimental effect on the health and livelihoods of poor people, and on economic growth. Water and sanitation are consistently among the top priorities of poor people in most developing countries. This does not however always result in action by Governments.

The problems are complex. The approach set out in the Water Action Plan recognises that efforts to improve water supply, sanitation or water resource mgement

5 Mar 2004 : Column 92WS

are most effective when they support developing country Governments' own plans. Against this background, DFID's Water Action Plan sets out a plan of work at international regional and national levels. This includes: making sure water and sanitation figure prominently in policy discussions with our main partner countries; providing evidence of the links between improved water mgement, water supply and sanitation and achieving all the MDGs, and ensuring that we are making use of this evidence in our policy dialogue; and improving the way the international system works, by focusing support on key international partnerships and networks, particularly those that can improve co-ordination in the water sector.

The next step is putting this Action Plan into operation, to ensure a coherent approach to water and sanitation issues at national, regional and international levels. This will include developing milestones against which progress can be assessed. As part of its review of progress, DFID will also establish a regular water and sanitation forum in the UK for sharing knowledge and ideas with development partners.

The Water Action Plan is also available on the DFID website: www.dfid.gov.uk.

---

---