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19 Jul 2004 : Column 4W—continued
INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Iraq
Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many hospitals there are in Iraq; and at what capacity they are running. [184272]
Hilary Benn: According to the May 2004 Iraq Humanitarian Assistance Report, there are 240 hospitals and 1,200 primary health care clinics employing over 100,000 health workers. There are no statistics available showing what capacity these hospitals are running at. Preliminary indicators that are available show a doctor to population ratio at five per 10,000, which is satisfactory, but a severe shortage of nurses with only an estimated total of 12,000 active in the health sector.
There are many challenges facing the health sector in Iraq. DFID's main support to date has been to help ensure that the Ministry of Health can call on expertise to help them restore essential services. DFID has provided £5 million to the World Health Organisation to enable them to work with the Iraqis on these issues. Additional DFID support is being channelled through the multi-donor World Bank and United Nations trust funds, to which DFID has made an initial contribution of £70 million.
EU Development Spending
Clare Short: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much and what percentage of the UK aid budget was committed to EU development spending in each year since 1990. [184772]
Hilary Benn: The following table provides the information from financial year 1990–91 to 2002–03, the latest year for which figures are available.
Source:
Statistics on International Development. Prepared by: SRSG 14/07/04.
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International Aid (UN Target)
Mr. Davidson: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if he will list those countries which meet the UN target of spending 0.7 per cent. of gross domestic product on international aid; if he will list those countries which have set a date by which they will do so; and if he will make a statement. [184135]
Hilary Benn: Countries that already meet the UN target of spending 0.7 per cent. of gross national income on official development assistance are:
Denmark
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Norway
Sweden
Other countries that have set a date by which they will reach the 0.7 per cent. target are:
Belgium
Finland
France
Ireland
Spain
On Monday 12 July, as part of the 2004 Spending Review, the Chancellor announced that UK ODA would reach nearly £6.5 billion a year by 2007–08. Total UK ODA as a proportion of GNI will rise from 0.34 per cent. (provisionally) in 2003 to 0.39 per cent. next year, 0.42 per cent. in 2006–07 and to 0.47 per cent. in 2007–08. The Government wishes to maintain these rates of growth in the overseas aid ratio which on this timetable would rise beyond 0.5 per cent. after 2008 and reach 0.7 per cent. by 2013.
The Chancellor's proposal to establish the International Financing Facility provides an additional means of significantly increasing investment in international development to address the funding gap. If the International Finance Facility (IFF) succeeds, total UK aid flows based on estimated disbursements from the IFF, excluding the debt service elements, could achieve the equivalent of 0.7 per cent. ODA/GNI earlier, by 2008–09.
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Travel Costs
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what the travel costs were of civil servants in (a) his Department and (b) its related agencies in each year since 1997. [183893]
Hilary Benn: The figures reflect domestic and overseas travel. All official travel is undertaken in accordance with the rules contained in DFID's staff handbook, which reflects the requirements of the Civil Service Management Code. Figures for earlier years are not available and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. Figures for travel costs within administration costs budgets for years for which information is readily available are as follows.
| Amount | |
|---|---|
| 2001–02 | 2,358,000 |
| 2002–03 | 2,645,000 |
In 2003–04 DFID introduced new procedures to capture administration costs, which had previously been recorded on the programme budget. This included travel expenditure, previously incurred by overseas offices, which constitutes the bulk of official travel. These changes will increase transparency and enable DFID to manage administrative costs more effectively, but means that 2003–04 figures are not comparable with earlier years.
| Amount | |
|---|---|
| 2003–04(7) | 10,715,000 |
(7) Provisional
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER
Affordable Housing
Mr. Gray: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister when he expects to meet regional planning guidance targets for affordable housing provision in the South West; and why the Housing Corporation is planning to fund fewer new homes per year for 2004 to 2006 in the South West than the 2001 Regional Planning Guidance target. [185181]
Keith Hill:
The policy of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister—as set out in Planning Policy Guidance Note 3 (PPG3)—is not to set region-wide targets or quotas for affordable housing. Targets are more appropriately set at the local level as they are, necessarily, derived from local circumstances and assessments. The figures set out in Regional Planning Guidance for the South West (RPG10) are, therefore, not a target but an indicator against which the provision of affordable housing can be monitored. Although better quality information than currently available is needed to assess how we are progressing against this indicator, we do know that we are not yet providing sufficient affordable homes. That is why the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has accepted Kate Barker's recommendation that there should be a step-change in housing supply. Over the coming months, we will be consulting on a package of proposals designed to
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achieve this, including the provision of independent advice to the Regions, which should improve significantly our ability to deliver and monitor the provision of affordable homes.
The office of the Deputy Prime Minister is also committing more resources to the delivery of affordable homes—the 2004 Spending Review will allow us to increase new social house building by 50 per cent. The Housing Corporation's Approved Development Programme (ADP) for the financial years 2004–05 and 2005–06 is worth £188.2 million and will deliver approximately 6,000 affordable homes in the South West. However, the ADP is not the only means available to deliver affordable housing. The planning system also provides local authorities with other tools to deliver affordable homes.
PPG3 requires that Local Planning authorities should plan to meet the housing requirements of the whole community, including those in need of affordable and special needs housing. The provision of affordable housing is a local authority responsibility and should be made on the basis of robust local assessments of needs. Where need is clearly demonstrated for affordable housing, this should be taken into account in formulating development plan policies and in deciding planning applications involving housing.
Coalfield Enterprise Fund
Jeff Ennis: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what progress is being made in the take-up of the Coalfield Enterprise Fund, with particular reference to south Yorkshire. [184109]
Phil Hope: The Coalfields Enterprise Fund is a venture capital fund aimed at investing in small and medium-sized companies with growth potential in the former coalfields. The Deputy Prime Minster announced the Fund on 26 March this year.
The fund manager has embarked upon a comprehensive marketing and promotional programme to establish the fund across the former coalfield areas including south Yorkshire.
As at the 13 July 2004 the Fund Manager had received a total of 27 applications for investment, of which 12 are in the former Yorkshire coalfield areas. Of these, four have been rejected as not fulfilling the Fund's investment criteria and eight are receiving further consideration.
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