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Traffic Management Act

Mr. Stringer: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport when he will publish the new regulatory impact assessment for the Traffic Management Act 2004. [196387]

Charlotte Atkins: We have no plans to produce a new Regulatory Impact Assessment covering the Traffic Management Act as a whole. However, many of the provisions in the Act will need to be brought into force by way of secondary legislation. Where this is the case we will publish separate assessments covering each of these. We expect to publish the first of these assessments next year.

Mr. Stringer: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what targets he has set for improvement in performance for (a) utility companies and (b) highway authorities over the next three years under the Traffic Management Act 2004. [196389]

Charlotte Atkins: We are not proposing to set overall targets for improvement in performance under the Traffic Management Act 2004. We intend activating key powers and duties under the Act over the coming year. We will be devising a monitoring regime to measure the impact of the Act, covering both utilities and highway authorities.

Victoria Embankmnet (Closure)

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport for what reasons Victoria Embankment was closed to traffic on the evening of 19 September; and for what reasons diversion notices were not put in place. [197679]

Mr. McNulty: Victoria Embankment was closed to traffic in the evening of 19 September for the Mayor's Thames Festival. I understand that the Festival
 
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organisers arranged for diversion notices to be put out 10 days before the event; and that Transport for London also put diversion notices on the dot matrix displays on their road network.

CABINET OFFICE

Departmental Responsibilities

Dr. Julian Lewis: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office pursuant to her answer of 3 November 2004, Official Report, columns 268–69W, on departmental responsibilities, what estimate has been made of the sum from within her Department's budget to be used to meet the cost of appointing a separate Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. [198006]

Ruth Kelly: I refer the hon. Member to the response I gave him on 10 November 2004, Official Report, column 769W.

Draft Civil Service Bill

Tony Wright: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office when the Government will publish a draft Civil Service Bill for consultation. [198927]

Ruth Kelly: The Government are today publishing its proposals for legislation for the Civil Service. This fulfils the Government's commitment, given in its response to the ninth report of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, to publish a draft Bill as a basis for further consultation following the publication of the Public Administration Select Committee's proposal for a Civil Service Act.

Copies of the consultation paper and the draft Bill have been placed in the Libraries of the House, and can be accessed at www.cabinet-office.gov.uk.

We would welcome comments on the consultation paper and the draft Bill by 28 February 2005.

Engagements

Dr. Julian Lewis: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will list his public engagements individually for the week beginning 8 November. [198005]

Mr. Milburn: I refer the hon. Member to my answer to him on 2 November 2004, Official Report, columns 223–24W.

High Sheriffs (CPOs)

Mr. Dismore: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will make a statement on the liability of High Sheriffs in the case of improper enforcement of compulsory purchase orders. [198135]

Keith Hill: I have been asked to reply.

Where the owner or occupier of land which an authority has been authorised to acquire under the terms of a compulsory purchase order refuses to give up possession of it, the authority may issue a warrant to the Sheriff who is then authorised to take possession of the land using sufficient force to enable this to be achieved. The Sheriff is also responsible for settling the costs accruing as a result of the issuing and execution of the
 
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warrant. These powers are provided in section 13 of the Compulsory Purchase Act 1965, with similar powers in section 91 of the Lands Consolidation Act 1845 for compulsory purchase orders to which the provisions of that Act apply.

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Africa/Caribbean/Pacific

Mr. Tynan: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if he will make a statement on EU FLEX financial support to the African, Caribbean and Pacific regions to smooth export earnings. [197632]

Mr. Gareth Thomas: The FLEX mechanism is a compensatory financing mechanism provided from the EU's European Development Fund under the Cotonou Agreement for African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. It has been in place since 2000. Its objectives are:

to provide support in the case of short-term fluctuations in export earnings in order to safeguard reforms and policies at risk as a result of a fall in revenue; and

to remedy the adverse effects of instability of export earnings in particular from agricultural and mining products.

Until June of this year there were two eligibility criteria to receive funding from FLEX:

(i) A 10 per cent. (2 per cent. in the case of least developed countries) loss of export earnings compared with the arithmetical average of earnings in the first three years of the four years preceding the application; and

(ii) A 10 per cent. worsening in the programmed public deficit programmed for the year in question or forecast for the following year.

Between its inception in 2000 and March 2004 only €35million was disbursed. Of the 51 applications, only nine met both eligibility criteria. In March 2004, the EC proposed revisions to relax FLEX's eligibility criteria, in order to ensure that it responded more effectively to its stated objectives.

In July, the EU and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) States agreed to modify the eligibility criteria as follows:

(a) To criteria 1: Extension to landlocked and island ACP states of the more favourable provision of having to only have suffered a 2 per cent. loss of export earnings (rather than 10 per cent.); and

(b) Reduction of the second criteria from a 10 per cent. to a 2 per cent. worsening of programmed public deficit.

The European Commission has agreed to undertake a review of FLEX by the beginning of 2005 at the latest, and annually thereafter. The evaluation will provide an initial assessment of the impact of these modifications. It is expected that they will result in an increase in the number of successful applicants, and the overall level of FLEX assistance provided.

AIDS

Mr. Wills: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much the Department spent on support for people in sub-Saharan Africa with
 
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AIDS and their families (a) directly and (b) through the EU in the last year for which figures are available. [196371]

Hilary Benn: Sub-Saharan Africa is home to 24 of the 25 countries with the highest levels of HIV prevalence: between 25 and 28 million people are infected with HIV in Africa. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) estimate that in 2003 alone, 2.3 million Africans died of AIDS. Despite high death rates, the number of people infected continues to rise. The Department for International Development attaches significant importance to addressing the epidemic globally, but most particularly in Africa. Our response needs to be comprehensive and broad if we are to have impact.

DFID spent over £270 million globally on HIV/AIDS programmes in 200–03. About two-thirds of this support was targeted at sub-Saharan Africa. DFID is one of the leading bilateral donors in support for HIV/AIDS. In addition, since 1997, DFID has provided over £1 billion of assistance to the development of the health sector.

In this financial year the Prime Minister launched our new AIDS strategy, which commits us to spending £1.5 billion over the next three years, with £50 million per year of this to be spent on support for orphans and vulnerable children. We are also on course to achieve overall development assistance levels of £1 billion per annum for Africa by the end of 2005 and will use the Presidency of both the G8 and the European Union in 2005 to concentrate upon both Africa and HIV and AIDS.

European Union (EU) activities to combat AIDS in developing countries is carried out within the framework of the European Commission's Programme for Action (PfA), entitled: "Accelerated action on HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB in the context of poverty reduction". The PfA aims to increase the impact of existing interventions to combat HIV/AIDS; increase the affordability of pharmaceuticals; and encourage investment in research for the development of global public goods to tackle HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and Malaria.

The Commission's average annual expenditure on the HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria, which is mainly through the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM) is currently €269 million per year. About 70 per cent. of GFATM expenditure goes to HIV/AIDS, while 60 per cent. of the total is spent in Africa (tentatively translating into €113 million per year for Africa). In addition to this direct expenditure, average annual EC global financing for the health sector is estimated as €565 million per year. Finally, HIV/AIDS prevalence rates are used as an important indicator in all countries where the EC is providing budget support.

The UK's significant contributions to the European Commission Development Budget and the European Development Fund however can not be tracked back specifically to use on HIV/AIDS in Africa. Most EC resources are allocated by region or country in response to country government's own priorities, and details of the proportion of UK support for HIV and AIDS are not available centrally. However, the UK has been
 
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working hard within the EU to protect the principles agreed at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo in 1994, which redefined sexual and reproductive health and rights.

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