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28 Oct 2004 : Column 1316W—continued

CDC

Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if he will list (a) current and (b) previous CDC investments in China's agribusiness sector by (i) amount, (ii) location and (iii) date. [193288]

Hilary Benn: CDC has made no investments in the agribusiness sector in China.

Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if he will make a statement on the executive performance bonus scheme for CDC/Actis Capital and its objectives. [193289]

 
28 Oct 2004 : Column 1317W
 

Hilary Benn: CDC has a Short-Term Incentive Plan (STIP) and a Long term Incentive Plan (LTIP) for its staff. The STIP is linked to achievement of the Investment Policy Targets, prudent financial management, and development of CDC's relations with potential partners. The LTIP is linked to financial performance, mobilisation of third-party capital, and development impact.

Remuneration in Actis is managed by its Supervisory Board. The remuneration principles are set out in Schedule 12 of the Members' Agreement, a copy of which is in the Library of the House.

Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much capital CDC/Actis Capital has (a) invested and (b) managed in China in each year since 1999. [193319]

Hilary Benn: The amounts are shown in the following table:

		US$ million
	Amount invested	Funds under management
1999	0	0
2000	25.0	100.0
2001	30.0	100.0
2002	7.5	100.0
2003	12.0	100.0
2004	10.0	100.0

Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development pursuant to his answer of 14 September 2004, Official Report, column 1518W, on CDC/Actis Capital, whether CDC's investments in China qualify as bilateral aid. [193324]

Hilary Benn: I confirm that CDC investments in China are classified as bilateral aid.

China Capital Partners

Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many people are employed by China Capital Partners Ltd.; and if he will list the locations of its offices. [193322]

Hilary Benn: China Capital Partners employs seven people and has one office, which is in Beijing.

Locusts

Mr. Simmonds: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps Her Majesty's Government have taken to provide assistance to (a) Niger, (b) Mauritania, (c) Chad, (d) Gambia, (e) Mali and (f) Senegal, following the recent plague of locusts that has ravaged crops and land. [193818]

Hilary Benn: The Department for International Development (DFID) has provided £1.5 million to the emergency international appeal for locust control in the West Africa Region, issued by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). This appeal covers operations in all of the above countries. UK funding will assist the immediate emergency control of swarms over the next three months. In addition, the European Commission is providing €23.5 million (£16.3 million)
 
28 Oct 2004 : Column 1318W
 
to assist those countries worst affected. The UK's attributed share of this assistance will be approximately £3 million.

Malawi

Mr. Paul Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what projects his Department is supporting in the Kayezi region of Malawi. [192291]

Hilary Benn: The Department for International Development supports national programmes in Malawi on health (TB, Sexual Reproductive Health Programme, National Immunization and Malaria Programme), primary education, HIV/AIDS, targeted inputs, safety and security and access to justice.

Kayezi falls within the Mzimba district where it benefits from the programmes mentioned above.

Policy Programmes

Mr. Alan Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if he will list the policy programmes undertaken by his Department in each of the last three years, broken down by (a) risk level, (b) cost and (c) purpose of each programme; and if he will make a statement. [194314]

Hilary Benn: DFID undertakes a large number of projects and programmes involving policy, most of which involves knowledge and research. This ranges from acquisition of knowledge to implementation of programme objectives. In reply to the hon. Member's question of 21 October 2004, Official Report, column 850W, a list of contracts including those involving knowledge and research, issued by DFID over the last five years is being placed in the Library. This includes consultants contracted for the purpose of knowledge and research. The project title in those cases provides an indication of the objective of the activity but to set out the purpose and risk level of each would involve disproportionate cost. In addition to these contracts, much of DFID's policy formulation is carried out in-house through the work of DFID's Policy Division.

Over the last 3 years, DFID has spent £540 million on Knowledge and Research. Of the above total, expenditure on centrally funded research (that is research more concerned with global rather than country issues) is around £85 million per year rising to at least £100 million per year in 2006–07.

DFID funds research, on a wide variety of policy issues. A Research Funding Framework has just been published which is available on the DFID website. www.dfid.gov.uk. This identifies four major themes, which will take some two-thirds of research funding: sustainable agriculture, especially in Africa; killer diseases; climate change; and work to identify policy options in situations where states do not work for the poor. Some research—such as that relating to an HIV vaccine—is high risk, but worth supporting because the potential benefits are also very high.
 
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Private Finance Initiatives

Mr. George Osborne: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if he will list the Private Finance Initiative arrangements in which the Department is engaged; what the total cost of each arrangement is (a) over its lifetime and (b) in each year of its operation; and how the arrangement appears in the Department's public accounts. [193978]

Hilary Benn: DFID has no Private Finance Initiative arrangements.

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

Exeuctive Agencies (Yorkshire)

Hugh Bayley: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many full-time equivalent jobs (a) his Department and (b) its executive agencies had in (i) Yorkshire and the Humber and (ii) the City of York in (A) 1997 and (B) the latest year for which figures are available. [191854]

Phil Hope: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer given by my hon. Friend the Member for Bolton, West (Ruth Kelly) on 25 October 2004, Official Report, column 1053 W.
 
28 Oct 2004 : Column 1320W
 

Gypsies

Tom Cox: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many Gypsy caravan sites are registered in England and Wales. [194136]

Keith Hill: As at January 2004 there were 342 local authority Gypsy and Traveller sites in England. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister does not collect data on the number of privately-owned Gypsy and Traveller sites, but does conduct a count of the number of caravans on such sites which, as at January 2004, stood at 4,890.

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister does not collect data on Gypsy and Traveller sites in Wales. The Welsh Assembly has responsibility for Gypsy and Traveller policy in Wales.

Fire (Emergency Calls)

Simon Hughes: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many (a) genuine and (b) malicious false alarm fire emergency calls were received in (i) Greater London and (ii) each London borough in each year since 1999. [194313]

Mr. Raynsford: The number of fire false alarm calls attended by the London Fire Brigade since 1999 is tabled as follows. Genuine false alarms are those generated by automatic equipment and by people believing that there was a fire (good intent).
Types of fire false alarm attended by London Fire Brigade

	1999–2000			2000–01
Borough	AFA	Good intent	Malicious	AFA	Good intent	Malicious
Barking and Dagenham	319	360	449	298	427	368
Barnet	1,431	496	261	1,306	520	293
Bexley	676	323	275	695	262	230
Brent	1,263	411	429	1,312	380	482
Bromley	903	384	301	905	441	256
Camden	3,446	621	414	3,682	565	331
City of London	936	89	27	1,014	100	26
Croydon	1,065	446	386	1,138	434	352
Ealing	1,490	466	380	1,420	444	347
Enfield	1,059	448	387	1,302	389	337
Greenwich	697	528	550	792	531	482
Hackney	1,524	633	759	1,645	610	619
Hammersmith and Fulham	1,446	343	229	1,535	340	253
Haringey	1,256	441	532	1,297	429	455
Harrow	715	197	132	791	219	128
Havering	739	286	156	536	284	163
Hillingdon	2,875	485	369	2,788	481	242
Hounslow	1,063	427	327	994	408	311
Islington	1,606	527	515	1,726	504	512
Kensington and Chelsea	2,169	334	136	2,145	374	189
Kingston-upon-Thames	1,029	176	148	1,151	162	92
Lambeth	1,618	630	496	1,662	641	469
Lewisham	1,400	521	631	1,486	449	403
Merton	667	257	168	662	251	146
Newham	1,054	557	915	1,029	607	914
Redbridge	799	305	230	741	316	209
Richmond-upon-Thames	934	220	66	894	202	82
Southwark	1,854	602	539	1,902	694	596
Sutton	801	170	112	756	155	109
Tower Hamlets	2,205	617	776	2,332	703	747
Waltham Forest	803	349	391	840	345	386
Wandsworth	1,739	401	332	1,725	421	266
Westminster	5,214	747	569	6,153	745	475
Borough not known	1,033	223	100	537	109	100
Total	47,828	14,020	12,487	49,191	13,942	11,370

 
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	2001–02			2002–03			2003–04
Borough	AFA	Good intent	Malicious	AFA	Good intent	Malicious	AFA	Good intent	Malicious
Barking and Dagenham	303	509	397	420	428	325	397	525	351
Barnet	1,393	465	310	1,327	452	246	1,377	579	195
Bexley	755	344	197	690	319	170	805	413	169
Brent	1,273	403	379	1,191	407	376	1,319	447	402
Bromley	1,006	436	252	901	387	182	929	511	232
Camden	4,039	669	431	3,716	616	311	3,823	519	342
City of London	1,097	110	33	992	99	19	1,136	122	30
Croydon	1,134	530	439	1,136	476	269	1,192	547	284
Ealing	1,402	442	445	1,374	427	266	1,401	527	332
Enfield	1,421	505	488	1,285	475	461	1,319	599	405
Greenwich	1,023	626	587	1,033	537	404	953	675	418
Hackney	1,669	708	613	1,714	663	488	1,692	634	428
Hammersmith and Fulham	1,614	324	195	1,623	364	176	1,820	333	152
Haringey	1,395	468	526	1,431	481	584	1,469	480	420
Harrow	1,042	243	173	1,061	235	138	1,192	287	223
Havering	552	363	136	554	330	130	599	441	156
Hillingdon	2,849	569	379	2,544	557	303	2,502	721	267
Hounslow	1,001	481	317	972	426	229	1,021	542	182
Islington	1,585	563	404	1,717	494	392	1,829	519	416
Kensington and Chelsea	2,246	381	225	2,156	341	155	2,189	389	161
Kingston-upon-Thames	1,105	175	108	1,109	152	77	1,185	198	67
Lambeth	1,827	647	491	1,594	614	431	1,718	578	403
Lewisham	1,649	505	470	1,353	524	314	1,258	512	654
Merton	806	305	163	693	259	142	713	296	137
Newham	1,029	691	939	1,125	642	805	1,037	633	636
Redbridge	800	364	245	930	339	223	991	427	192
Richmond-upon-Thames	928	185	74	873	208	53	891	266	67
Southwark	1,841	763	603	1,819	733	507	1,854	658	480
Sutton	785	214	139	734	209	120	793	267	131
Tower Hamlets	2,238	796	842	2,174	793	773	2,295	760	608
Waltham Forest	876	335	366	817	353j	264	863	449	309
Wandsworth	1,729	428	325	1,794	410	241	1,815	426	254
Westminster	6,323	747	480	6,297	785	419	6,419	725	355
Borough not known	90	39	33	22	19	2	40	30	6
Total	50,825	15,333	12,204	49,171	14,554	9,995	50,836	16,035	9,864

Note:
2002–03 excludes strike days
Source:
London Fire Brigade

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