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29 Jun 2004 : Column 208W—continued

Passports

Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many UK passports were recorded as lost or stolen in (a) 2003, (b) the first quarter of 2004 and (c) since the introduction of secure delivery. [180129]

Mr. Browne: On 8 December 2003 the UK Passport Service (UKPS) introduced comprehensive new arrangements for reporting and recording the total number of passports which were lost, stolen or recovered. Based on the arrangements in place at the time, UKPS records show that 184,301 passports were recorded as being lost, stolen or unavailable in 2003.

Under the new more comprehensive reporting and recording arrangements, the total number of lost and stolen passports reported to the UKPS in the first quarter of 2004 was 73,451 passports.

Secure delivery was introduced progressively from 9 February 2004.

The number of passports lost in the post are a small proportion of the total number of passports reported lost and stolen. In 2003, prior to the introduction of secure delivery, 3,593 passports were lost in the post. 188 passports have been lost in the four-and-a-half months since the introduction of secure delivery, the majority as a result of two incidents of theft of numbers of passports from mail depots.

Substance Misuse

John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what comparison has been made of the success rates for patients treated by general practitioners for substance misuse and for those provided treatment by drugs case managers under the Criminal Justice Intervention Programme. [180399]

Caroline Flint [holding answer 24 June 2004]: All elements of the Criminal Justice Interventions Programme have been subject to, or are currently undergoing, evaluation by external evaluators. These evaluations seek to identify both the impact of the different interventions and also draw out lessons around implementation and delivery which feed into ongoing performance improvement.

The operation of Criminal Justice Integrated Teams (CJITs), which provide case management for drug misusing offenders in the programme, are being evaluated as part of the overall evaluation. But it is unlikely that the evaluation will compare directly the
 
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operation of CJITs with the very important care provided by GPs. This reflects the difference in roles between GPs and CJIT workers, in particular in relation to the wider co-ordination roles of CJIT staff.

Worker Registration Scheme

Mr. Malins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many applications the Home Office has received from new EU citizens under the worker registration scheme since 1 May. [181285]

Mr. Browne: We will be making information about the effect of EU enlargement available on a regular basis, in an open and transparent way, when it is appropriate and meaningful to do so.

Working Holidaymaker Visa Scheme

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people in the UK pursuant to
 
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being issued a visa under the working holidaymaker scheme have subsequently applied for leave to remain permanently. [178779]

Mr. Browne: The working holidaymaker (WHM) scheme is a temporary immigration category. There is no provision in the Immigration Rules for those granted leave to enter as a working holidaymaker to be granted indefinite leave to remain in this capacity.

Working holidaymakers may switch into work permit employment if they have spent at least 12 months within the United Kingdom and meet the necessary criteria.

No data is held on the number of working holidaymakers granted further leave to remain for the purpose of work permit employment, who subsequently apply for indefinite leave to remain on that basis.

An announcement on reforms to the WHM scheme will be made shortly.
 
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INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Indonesia

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much (a) monetary aid and (b) aid in kind his Department has (i) pledged and (ii) delivered to Aceh in each month since May 2003; and if he will make a statement. [180543]

Mr. Gareth Thomas: DFID assistance in Aceh is provided through the United Nations Office For Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC). Since May 2003 DFID has provided £1,080,000 to OCHA and £750,000 to ICRC to support their humanitarian and emergency assistance programmes in Indonesia, including those in Aceh. DFID continues to monitor the situation in Aceh and are in regular contact with the UN, which co-ordinates humanitarian activities there. Under the terms of our grants, DFID does not require these agencies to provide monthly breakdowns of expenditure covering different elements of their programmes.

Bilateral Projects

Mr. Robathan: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if he will break down the project value of each bilateral project by risk level as defined in the departmental annual report. [180554]

Hilary Benn: I have arranged for copies of the document entitled 'Breakdown of Bilateral Aid Projects by Risk level for 2003–04' to be placed in the Libraries of the House.

Civil Society Organisations

Mr. Robathan: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what criteria are used by the Department to ascertain the relative effectiveness of civil society organisations through which it channels aid. [180589]

Mr. Gareth Thomas: DFID supports civil society organisations (CSOs) in a number of ways, including through centrally managed funding schemes such as the Civil Society Challenge Fund and Partnership Programme Agreements, and through individual country offices, country programmes and humanitarian assistance. CSOs play an important role in eliminating world poverty and are important partners for DFID in meeting that objective. DFID's support is based on CSOs' performance against specific agreed programmatic or strategic outcomes, rather than by assessing CSOs one against another. A range of monitoring, evaluation and review procedures are used.

EU Development Programme

Mr. Robathan: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what percentage contribution the UK made to the European Union development programme in 2003–04; what projections he has made for
 
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2004–05 to 2006–07; what percentage of the EU development programme is projected to go to low income countries in each year; and what definition of low income country the EU uses in this calculation. [180591]

Mr. Gareth Thomas: The forecast percentages of the indicative UK contributions to the EC aid budget for 2003–04 to 2006–07 are shown in the following table.

	Percentage of EC aid attributable to the UK
2003–04	19.09
2004–05	17.70
2005–06	17.20
2006–07	17.34

Source:
HM Treasury.

These figures do not include payments to the discretionary European Development Fund (EDF), for which the UK share is set at 12.7 per cent. for EDF 9. The latest available figure for the percentage of EC aid going to Low Income Countries (LICs) is 42 per cent. in 2002. This figure was calculated by DFID using the Development Assistance Committee definition of LICs—countries with a GNI per capita below $760 in 1998.

Actual EC aid spending levels are heavily dependent on political priorities, international circumstances and Commission and partner country capacity. DFID therefore does not produce forecasts for the poverty focus for future years.

HIV/AIDS

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what assessment he has made of the percentage change in the rate of HIV infection among young people aged 15 to 24 since June 2001 in (a) Asia and (b) Africa. [179935]

Mr. Gareth Thomas: The Department for International Development (DFID) has not made its own assessment of the percentage change in the rate of HIV infection among young people aged 15 to 24 years since June 2001 in (a) Asia and (b) Africa. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) provides this technical data and we support their work. Their 'Report on the global AIDS epidemic 2004', will be published on 6 July, I will write to the hon. Member shortly after with this information.

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what estimate he has made of the percentage of young people aged between 15 to 24 years in (a) the United States, (b) the Russian Federation and (c) Africa who have access to information, education and services to reduce their vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. [179950]

Mr. Gareth Thomas: The Department for International Development (DFID) has not made its own estimate of the percentage of young people aged between 15 to 24 years in (a) the United States, (b) the Russian Federation and (c) Africa who have access to information, education and services to reduce their
 
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vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) provides this technical data and we support their work. Their 'Report on the global AIDS epidemic 2004' will be published on 6 July. I will write to the hon. Member shortly after with this detailed information.

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