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Guantanamo Bay

13. Norman Baker (Lewes) (LD): If he will make a statement on his Department's involvement with the British citizens held at Guantanamo bay. [178165]

The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. David Blunkett): We have sought to maintain a balance between pursuing international terrorists and protecting and defending basic human rights. Our position on the four British nationals detained in Guantanamo bay remains that they should obtain a fair trial in accordance with international standards of justice. The detainees were interviewed by the Security Service as part of the Government's responsibility to protect national security. Those interviews were conducted on a voluntary basis and were undertaken in accordance with accepted international procedures.

Norman Baker: I thank the Home Secretary and agree with the objective that he set out of a fair trial or release for those UK nationals. However, does he remember answering a written question from me only last week in which he appeared to accept that some detainees questioned by UK intelligence personnel

"have complained about their treatment in detention"—[Official Report, 9 June 2004; Vol. 422, c. 427W.]?

Those complaints were about treatment not dissimilar to that in Abu Ghraib, which contravenes the Geneva conventions. Does he believe that those allegations are justified and is it not time that the Government did more to stand up for British nationals instead of kowtowing to the US?

Mr. Blunkett: The British Government have made appropriate representations to the United States authorities in relation to all those complaints. As I said a moment ago, interviews were undertaken on a voluntary basis and to the standards that we would expect of our own officials operating in this country.

Burglary (Vale of York)

14. Miss Anne McIntosh (Vale of York) (Con): If he will make a statement on the level of burglaries in the Vale of York in (a) January 1997, (b) January 2000 and (c) January 2004. [178166]
 
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The Minister for Crime Reduction, Policing and Community Safety (Ms Hazel Blears): Recorded crime figures at local area level are available centrally only for domestic burglary and from the financial year 1999–2000. The Vale of York falls across both Central and Eastern North Yorkshire police force divisions. In these areas combined, there were 3,702 domestic burglaries recorded in 1999–2000, rising to 3,750 in 2001–02. I am delighted to say that in 2002–03 the number decreased to 3,690. Figures for 2003–04 will be published in July.

Miss McIntosh: Can the Minister explain why the number of burglaries went up and why the number of
 
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detected and reported burglaries is going up, but the number of successful prosecutions is going down, according to her own figures?

Ms Blears: As I said in my answer, the number of burglaries went up in 2001–02 and is now coming down. That reflects the national trend, where burglary is down almost 40 per cent. since 1997. Much work is going on to bring offenders to justice and to increase detection. The hon. Lady has recently been pressing me to give her area more community support officers. I am delighted to say that in our third round of funding, more will indeed be available, but if she wants more police officers—there have been 11,000 more under this Government—and more community support officers to tackle burglary, her party will have to pay for them.

 
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G8 Summit

3.31 pm

The Prime Minister (Mr. Tony Blair): With permission, Mr. Speaker, I shall make a statement on the G8 summit in the United States, which I attended last week. I thank President Bush for his chairmanship of the summit, and the people of Georgia for hosting it. I have placed copies of the Chairman's summary and summit documents in the House Libraries.

At the outset, I am sure the whole House will join me in expressing our condolences to the families of the two British contractors killed in Iraq this morning.

At the G8 summit, we all agreed on the importance of transferring authority in Iraq at the end of the month to a fully sovereign Iraqi Government. We welcomed the formation of the new Iraqi interim Government. The unanimous adoption by the United Nations Security Council of the resolution on Iraq demonstrates the international consensus to support the new Government of Iraq under Prime Minister Alawi and to support the vision of a modern, democratic, federal and stable Iraq.

The new President of Iraq expressed his thanks for the sacrifices made by the coalition forces to free his country from the evils of the Saddam regime. He was absolutely clear that there was no desire among the Iraqi people to go back to the past. He entirely rejected the notion that the people of Iraq were unable to make democracy work or that the insurgents represented anything other than a small minority of Iraqis. He described the reality to us vividly. Those who carry out violent attacks, blowing up water and oil pipelines, leaving ordinary Iraqis to go without power, are not patriots, he said. They are terrorists whose agenda is to cause chaos. They are determined to stop us succeeding, but we will succeed, with Iraq a better place not just for Iraqis, but for the wider region and the world.

This led on to a discussion of the initiative to help build reform across the broader middle east and north Africa region. We agreed a set of proposals to help bring greater democracy, freedom and stability to the whole of that region, working in support of those in the region who want to make progress towards modernisation and reform. Reform must of course come from within. The G8 responded positively to ideas from regional leaders, most notably at the Arab League summit in Tunis, where Arab leaders expressed their determination

"firmly to establish the basis for democracy"

in the middle east.

We met a number of leaders from the region—from Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Yemen and Turkey. We agreed with them a comprehensive and detailed plan of support to give momentum to the initiative. We set out concrete measures to address the illiteracy, poverty and under-development of the region, to make the most of the region's entrepreneurial and cultural traditions on which it could thrive. We established what is called the Forum for the Future, which will bring together Foreign and Economic Ministers from the G8 and countries in the region. The inaugural meeting will be held in the autumn.

We also discussed the middle east peace process. We agreed that the basis for progress is still the road map, which sets out the path to the two-state solution. We
 
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agreed that the Quartet should meet in the region before the end of this month, and that it should now come up with a specific set of actions to restore momentum on the road map. These should cover political reform of the Palestinian Administration, a security plan and an economic plan. Taken together, all these various initiatives amount to a vision of a middle east that is no longer a source of instability and extremism, but of increasingly more democratic states which respect different religious faiths and human rights and can live peacefully within the world community.

On the final day of the summit we concentrated on Africa, and leaders from Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Algeria and Uganda joined us. African issues are now a well-established part of the G8 agenda. We agreed a number of new measures. We have to ensure that where there is a conflict in Africa, we have the peacekeeping ability to back up and support a political settlement. So the G8 made a commitment to ensure that up to 75,000 peacekeeping troops will be trained and ready to be deployed on peacekeeping operations by 2010. The UK intends to train, directly or indirectly, some 17,000 African troops in that period.

We discussed the grave humanitarian and political crisis in Sudan, which my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Development visited last week. The UK is the second largest donor to Sudan, giving £36.5 million this year alone. The G8 pledged assistance in ending the conflict and bringing humanitarian assistance to those in need, and we agreed to work together to help the UN lead the international effort to avert a major humanitarian disaster.

We also agreed a new initiative to extend AIDS vaccine research, confirmed the polio eradication target and agreed on new measures to help to break the vicious cycle of famine and food insecurity in the horn of Africa. The heavily indebted poor countries initiative has given welcome relief from the crushing burden of debt that has held back so many of the poorest countries. We have already agreed some $70 billion of debt relief for 27 countries, 23 of which are in Africa. We reaffirmed our commitment to implement and to finance that initiative fully. We agreed to work with all parties concerned to extend the initiative from the end of this year to the end of 2006. That agreement then opens the door for another 10 countries to benefit from more than $30 billion of debt relief. That will free up vital resources that can be spent on health and education and the eradication of poverty.

This series of initiatives confirms the growing importance of Africa for all of us in the G8. The UK alone will spend some £l billion in Africa next financial year. A major part of the agenda for our G8 summit next year will be the work of the Commission for Africa that we have established. The commission will report back next spring with a series of agreed recommendations for action, and we will then work with the rest of the G8 to take them forward.

The other major part of the agenda for the UK presidency of the G8 in 2005 will be climate change. We need to make progress with the ratification of Kyoto, but we also need to look beyond Kyoto and its 2012 time frame.
 
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We held an extensive discussion of the world economy. We agreed on the need for further structural reforms in our economies to accelerate growth. We discussed the current level of oil prices, notably the recent pledge by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries to increase production.

On trade, there was broad agreement to press ahead with the Doha development round. We called on all parties to take the measures necessary to get the round moving forward. The benefits are clear: substantially reducing trade barriers could boost global income by some $500 billion a year, with most of that going to developing countries.

On non-proliferation, we adopted an action plan that builds on and enhances the existing global non-proliferation regime. We recognised the need to strengthen controls on the transfer of nuclear enrichment and reprocessing technology, and we agreed to have new measures in place before next year's summit.

The G8 was originally created to discuss economic issues. Of course we still do that, but increasingly the focus has moved towards issues of international solidarity. That is because it is clear that in an interdependent world, what blights or enhances one part of the world affects the other parts, too. It is morally right that we extend democracy, cut poverty, remove the causes of conflict and instability, and bring the hope of advancement to all nations; but it is also now clearly in our enlightened self-interest. If global terrorism and the proliferation of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons are the new security threat we face, we recognise that it cannot be defeated by security measures alone. Political freedom and rising prosperity, as much as force of arms, will be our ultimate shield: this year's G8 recognised that reality. We look forward to deepening it under British chairmanship next year.

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