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Written Ministerial Statements
Wednesday 30 June 2004
INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Essential Medicines
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development (Mr. Gareth Thomas): I have placed in the Libraries of both Houses copies of the new UK Government paper "Increasing Access to Essential Medicines in the Developing World: UK Government Policy and Plans". This paper is published by the Department for International Development (DFID) on behalf of seven Government Departments—the Department of Health, Department of Trade and Industry, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, HM Treasury, the Inland Revenue, the Patent Office and DFID. These Departments worked together to deliver the paper.
The lack of access to essential medicines in developing countries is one of the most pressing global health issues. Tackling this could save millions of lives every year—the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that as many as 4 million lives could be saved each year in Africa and South-East Asia with improved access to medicines. However, while some encouraging progress has been made in recent years, there remains a limited supply of affordable medicines and inadequate health systems to deliver them in many developing countries, and a continuing shortage of new products to meet developing country health needs.
We have strengthened collaboration and policy coherence across Government to address this issue and have jointly agreed next steps. These are outlined in the paper, and cover four areas:
Support to developing countries through the UK development assistance programme, with a focus on increasing poor people's access to health services;
trade policy, focusing on supporting developing countries in understanding and making use of the flexibilities within World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules governing intellectual property;
engagement with the business community, focusing on work with the pharmaceutical industry, to address the longer-term supply of affordable medicines to developing countries;
efforts—in the UK and Internationally—to stimulate increased research and development into new medicines and other healthcare products relevant to developing country health needs.
work with UK research institutions to establish a UK Funders Forum for health research relevant to developing country needs;
monitor and evaluate the UK Vaccines Research Relief, a tax credit for the research and development of products for HIV, TB and malaria;
work with the pharmaceutical industry to develop a "best practice" framework, to support and encourage companies in their work to increase access to medicines;
implement any necessary legislation within the UK (and EU) to facilitate export to developing countries under compulsory licence, if requested, in line with the WTO General Council's Decision of 30 August 2003.
Implementation of the paper will require continued collaboration across Government. It will also require us to work in partnership with developing country Governments, international agencies and donors, civil society, the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, the broader private sector and the research community.
TREASURY
Financial Services Authority
The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Ruth Kelly): The Annual Report 2003–04 of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has today been laid before Parliament.
Copies are available in the Libraries of both Houses. The report forms a key part of the accountability mechanism for the Financial Services Authority under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA), and assesses the performance of the Financial Services Authority over the past 12 months against its statutory objectives.
DEFENCE
Government Contracts
The Minister of State, Ministry of Defence (Mr. Adam Ingram): I am pleased to announce that the Government have accepted the recommendations in the Review Board for Government Contracts' 2003 general review of the profit formula for non-competitive Government contracts.
This package of measures, to be implemented from 1 July 2004, represents a significant modernising of the current profit formula arrangements, and is consistent with the Department's defence industrial policy.
The measures that will be introduced include an alternative profit calculation methodology, a recognition that there are varying degrees of risk associated with defence non-competitive contracts, arrangements for addressing "profit on profit", a formula for sharing excess profits and unconscionable losses, and incentives to encourage timely submission of post-costing certificates.
A copy of the report has been placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
Shatt Al Arab Incident
The Secretary of State for Defence (Mr. Geoffrey Hoon):
On 21 June a Royal Navy training team consisting of eight personnel and three small boats was detained by the Iranian authorities on the Shatt al Arab waterway near the southern extremity of the Al Faw Peninsula. The team was conducting a routine boat movement from Umm Qasr to Basra. The initial assessment, reflected in statements by a British Army
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spokesman in Basra and the British Ambassador in Tehran, was that these service personnel could have strayed into Iranian waters by mistake.
Our first priority was for the safe return of the personnel. Discussions with the Iranian authorities secured the release of the eight on 25 June. They were immediately returned to the multinational division south east where they underwent a medical assessment and debriefing to establish their perspective of the incident. Since then, two of the team have returned home because their tour of duty has come to an end; another returned home today for medical reasons associated with the incident. The remainder of the team continues to work in Iraq.
We are continuing with negotiations for the return of the boats and equipment. The deadline set for their return passed yesterday. The equipment consists of personal weapons, ammunition, radios and navigation equipment including echo sounders (to measure the depth of the water), global positioning systems (to identify exact position) and up-to-date maritime charts.
I would like to reassure the House that British personnel are trained to observe the normal rules of maritime navigation and are issued with modern charts and equipment. This should be sufficient to prevent inadvertent digressions across the border and we are not aware of any previous allegations that the border has been violated.
In recent more detailed debriefing, the crews have said that they were operating inside the Iraqi border and were forcibly escorted into Iranian territorial waters. Our assessment continues, and will be greatly assisted by the retrieval of navigational information in the global positioning system equipment carried by the crews. We are very concerned about the blindfolding of the men and have made representations about this to the Government of Iran. We have also made it clear that we do not expect a recurrence of this type of incident.
Disposal Services Agency
The Minister of State, Ministry of Defence (Mr. Adam Ingram): The agency was originally launched as the Disposal Sales Agency in October 1994 and was re-launched in November 2000, as the Disposal Services Agency. DSA provides a total disposal solution by acting as a broker and adding value through expert advice across the public sector. The agency operates very much in line with the Government's aim of more joined-up delivery. The chief executive of the agency has been set the following key targets for the financial year 2004–2005:
To achieve a disposal sales gross cash receipt of £20 million from sales of surplus Government owned equipment and stores. This figure reflects the planned surplus equipment disposal programme.
To meet the key performance indicators agreed in the customer supplier agreement (CSA) with the Defence Logistics Organisation (DLO).
To ensure that the agency is at the standard or above the standard of the public sector benchmarking report for overall customer satisfaction.
To secure £365,000 sales per person employed for commercial sales activities.
To ensure that the e-trade exchange is in operation in 2004–05 and that 30 per cent. of eligible agency contractors use it.
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