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Written Answers to Questions
4 October 2004
The following answers were received between Friday 17 September and Thursday 30 September 2004
INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
CDC/Actis Capital
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development whether external consultants have advised CDC/Actis Capital on the Higaturu Oil Palms investment since 1999; and whether the deal team identified specific areas of concern regarding impact on (a) the environment, (b) indigenous cultures and (c) employed smallholders. [188968]
Hilary Benn: Several external consultants have advised CDC on Higaturu Oil Palms since 1999. All have made recommendations for further improvement of Higaturu's environmental management, which have been incorporated into Higaturu's environmental management plan. None of them identified areas of concern that had not already been recognised or were not part of ongoing management.
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if he will list CDC/Actis Capital's expenditure on (a) corporate executive and (b) department staff development and team building exercises in each year since 2002. [189059]
Hilary Benn: CDC's expenditure on (a) Corporate Executive and (b) department staff development and team building exercises from 2002 until the end of June was as follows:
Corporate executive | Staff development and team building | |
|---|---|---|
| 2002 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
| 2003 | 0.2 | 0.1 |
| 2004 (end June) | 0.1 | 0.1 |
These figures do not include expenditure incurred by Actis since its demerger from CDC earlier this year. As Actis is an independently managed business, in which HMG is only a minority shareholder, it is inappropriate for me to comment on the internal affairs of the business.
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if he will list CDC/Actis Capital public relations consultant expenditure since 1997, broken down by project. [189066]
Hilary Benn:
CDC retained a UK public relations agency in 1997 and 1998, but stopped its services in mid 1999. Fees paid were minimal.
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Another UK public relations agency was employed in late 2002 and its services were used until April 2004. The costs of the services of this agency were £30,667 in 2002 and £113,512 in 2003. A breakdown by project is not possible as neither agency was retained on a project-specific basis. CDC has not retained any PR consultants since then.
These figures do not include any expenditure incurred by Actis on public relations since its demerger from CDC earlier this year. As Actis is an independently managed business, in which HMG is only a minority shareholder, it is inappropriate for me to comment on the internal affairs of the business.
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development (1) what representations he has received on the conditions of smallholders employed by Pacific Rim Palm Oil; [188853]
(2) what representations he has received regarding the Higaturu Oil Palms plantation's effect on (a) public health, (b) water quality, (c) indigenous sacred sites, (d) tribal property rights, (e) labour rights, (f) rainforest sustainability and deforestation and (g) species habitat; and if he will make a statement. [188852]
Hilary Benn: I received a letter from Friends of the Earth in June 2004, which enclosed letters from organisations in Papua New Guinea. In my reply to Friends of the Earth, I assured them that DFID takes these matters very seriously but that they should be taken up in the first instance with the company concerned. I understand that Actis, which manages the CDC investment in Pacific Rim Palm Oil Pte Ltd., the owners of Higaturu Oil Palms, held a meeting in late June 2004 with Friends of the Earth about these issues and has also replied to them by letter. In that reply, they invited Friends of the Earth to visit the plantation.
Correspondence
Dr. Tonge: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development when he will reply to the letter from the hon. Member for Richmond Park of 30 April regarding the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. [189141]
Hilary Benn: I wrote to the hon. Member about this subject on 23 September. Unfortunately, DFID has no record of receiving her original letter.
Council of Ministers
Sue Doughty:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development (1) if he will provide a written ministerial statement outlining for each meeting of the Council of Ministers at which his Department is represented as soon as is practicable following that meeting (a) the key items of discussion, (b) the positions of the Government on those items, (c) the key positions taken by other member states that Ministers consider should be noted by hon. Members and (d) any preliminary discussion on the timing and the agenda of the following meeting; [188209]
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(2) if he will provide a written ministerial statement outlining the key points on the agenda for each of the Council of Ministers' meetings at which his Department is represented in advance of each meeting. [188208]
Mr. Gareth Thomas: I refer the hon. Member to the reply given by my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary on 13 September 2004, Official Report, column 1451W.
Departmental Costs
Mr. Bercow:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what estimate he has made
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of the cost of fraud to his Department in each year since 1997, broken down by (a) UK locations and (b) overseas offices. [188329]
Mr. Gareth Thomas: The estimated cost of fraud to DFID each year since 1997, including the number of cases, is illustrated in the following table. While many of the cases are relatively small in financial terms (the total loss due to fraud in recent years is 0.006 percent of DFID's total spending) the Department remain committed to minimising such losses. This year DFID has reviewed and updated its policy and response to fraud, with advice from anti-fraud specialists.
| UK (£) | Number of cases | Overseas | Number of cases | Total (£) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996–1997 | 1,986 | 1 | 6,287 | 2 | 8,273 |
| 1997–1998 | 2,732 | 2 | 45,633 | 2 | 48,365 |
| 1998–1999 | nil | — | 96,925 | 9 | 96,925 |
| 1999–2000 | 79,833 | 5 | 11,220 | 4 | 91,053 |
| 2000–2001 | 9,489 | 6 | 8,750 | 5 | 18,239 |
| 2001–2002 | 1,378 | 3 | 82,187 | 9 | 83,565 |
| 2002–2003 | 8,385 | 5 | 94,599 | 12 | 102,984 |
| 2003–2004 | 30,000 | 1 | (1)202,91 7 | 16 | 232,917 |
(1) This is the current estimate since investigations are ongoing for some cases in 2003–2004.
Departmental Projects
Alan Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if he will list water services (a) delivery and (b) consultancy projects his Department has supported in each of the last five financial years; what levels of financial support were given in respect of each project; and which UK based companies were recipients of funding. [189348]
Mr. Gareth Thomas: The information requested is not readily available without extensive research being carried out for which the time and expenditure would incur a disproportionate cost.
Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what (a) overspend and (b) underspend has been identified for (i) programmes, (ii) initiatives, (iii) overseas projects and (iv) Department-wide projects funded by his Department in the last financial year. [189190]
Mr. Gareth Thomas: DFID's resource budget covers all DFID expenditure on development assistance. The outturn against the operating budget in 2003–04 is set out in the following table. This includes spending on programmes, projects and other initiatives. Separate figures are given for the Africa and Global Conflict pools:
| £ million | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Net Resource Provision (voted) | Net Resource Outturn | Under (-) /Over (+) spend | |
| RfR1: Eliminating Poverty in Poorer Countries | 3,015 | 2,914 | -101 |
| RfR1: Other Adjustment | — | -85 | -85 |
| RfR2: Conflict Pools | 49 | 45 | -4 |
| Total | 3,064 | 2,959 | -190 |
DFID also provided development assistance through our contribution to the EC. This totalled £865 million in 2003–04. The official outturn will not be available until 2006.
The following table shows resource outturn by Departmental Objective. This compares gross resource outturn against programme budgets. It excludes administration costs and other costs (for example, Capital Charges).
| £ million | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Net Resource Programme Budget | Net Resource Programme Outturn | Under (-)/Over (+) spend | |
| Reducing Poverty in sub- Saharan Africa | 680 | 639 | -41 |
| Reducing Poverty in Asia | 514 | 592 | +78 |
| Reducing Poverty in the Rest of the World | 425 | 429 | +4 |
| Improve Efficiency of Multilateral Aid | 780 | 676 | -104 |
| Developing Innovative Approaches to Development | 229 | 225 | -4 |
| Programmes Contributing to Multiple Objectives | 73 | 89 | +16 |
| Others | 2 | -21 | -23 |
| Total | 2,704 | 2,630 | -74 |
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| £ million | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Resource Budget | Resource Outturn | Under (-) /Over (+) spend | |
| Africa | 22 | 19 | -3 |
| Global | 27 | 26 | -1 |
| Total | 49 | 45 | -4 |
DFID also invests in capital projects for its own administration, for example, on accommodation and Information Technology projects. Spend against the Administration Capital budget in 2003–04 was as follows:
| £ million | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Admin Capital Budget | Admin Capital Outturn | Under (-) /Over (+) spend | |
| Central Departments | 32 | 30 | -2 |
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