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Europe Directorate

Kate Hoey: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what the total budget of the Europe directorate within his Department is in 2004–05; and how many staff work in the Europe directorate. [217953]

Mr. MacShane: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office's Europe directorate covers the UK's engagement with the EU's institutions, and our relations with all 24 other EU member states, the four European free trade area countries, those in the Balkans as well as Turkey, Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus—a total of 41 countries—plus the overseas territory of Gibraltar.

The total budget for the Europe directorate in 2004–05 is £127,473,000. This covers the running costs of operations at home and overseas (including locally engaged staff salaries), capital, and programme
 
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expenditure. There are 677 diplomatic service staff who work for the directorate—488 overseas, and 189 in London.

European Constitution

Mr. Davidson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to the answer of 8 February 2005,Official Report, column 1455W, on the European Constitution, under what circumstances the charter of fundamental rights might impact upon member states when implementing Union law. [218017]

Mr. MacShane: The Provisions of the charter of fundamental rights are addressed to the institutions, bodies, offices and agencies of the Union with due regard for the principle of subsidiarity and to the member states only when they are implementing Union law. Member states implement EU law in various ways, including by adopting legislation, by administrative
 
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practice or by enforcing penalties or other appropriate sanctions. The member states will need to take the rights, freedoms and principles set out in the charter, subject to its general provisions and with due regard to the official explanations, into account in carrying out such activities.

European Court of Justice

Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list those items of legislation introduced since 1997 in response to a ruling against the Government at the European Court of Justice. [216451]

Mr. MacShane: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office does not hold all the information requested. We have asked other Government Departments to provide us with the relevant information and I will write to the hon. Member once they have done so.

Indonesia

Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs on what occasions over the last year UK embassy staff have visited Aceh in Indonesia to assess the risk of UK-sourced equipment being used for internal repression; and during which of those visits staff had unrestricted, unimpeded and unaccompanied access to local citizens. [217455]

Mr. Alexander: In the last 12 months, there have been several visits by embassy staff to Aceh. Two members of the British embassy visited Aceh in February 2004. They held meetings with members of the Indonesian army, and with local NGOs. The Defence Attaché visited Aceh as part of an EU delegation in May. On both occasions, there were restrictions on movement, due to the security situation in the province. Since the tsunami disaster on 26 December and the lifting of restrictions, there have been many visits to Aceh where movement was only restricted by the physical devastation following the earthquake and tsunami.

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment his Department has made of Joel Boutroue's press briefing on 8 February 2005; what assessment his Department has made of the impact of the UN's view of the role of the provincial authorities, the district authorities and the Acehnese people on the Government of Indonesia and its policy towards Aceh; and if he will make a statement. [216404]

Mr. Alexander: We welcomed Mr Boutroue's comments on 8 February 2005 about the importance of involving the Acehnese in reconstructing their devastated province after the disaster on 26 December 2004. The Government of Indonesia have made clear that their main priority is to rebuild Aceh so that the lives of the people there who have suffered such tragic losses can be returned to normal as soon as possible, and that a political settlement to the long-running conflict is reached. With this objective in mind, the international community including the UN are in discussion with the people of Indonesia, particularly the people of Aceh, as to what help they can provide to assist in the recovery of the province.
 
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Iraq

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what reports he has received of UK (a) companies and (b) individuals receiving mismanaged Iraqi reconstruction funds. [216457]

Mr. Rammell: We have not received any reports of UK companies or individuals receiving mismanaged Iraqi reconstruction funds.

Llew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he (a) requested and (b) received figures for Iraqi casualties from the Interim Iraqi Government prior to those contained in the statement by the Interim Iraqi Health Minister of 29 October 2004. [217168]

Mr. Rammell: We have had regular discussions on this issue with the Iraqi authorities. We have not received figures for periods earlier than that covered in the Iraqi Minister of Health's statement of 29 October 2004. These covered the period 5 April to 5 October 2004. The Iraqi Ministry of Health only began collating statistics for casualties in April 2004.

Mr. Marshall-Andrews: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to his oral statement of 31 January 2005, Official Report, column 584, what the serious methodological difficulties are in relation to the figures of Iraqi casualties provided by the Iraqi Ministry of Health; whether these figures contain any attribution of the number of Iraqi deaths and injuries that have resulted from the actions of (a) multinational forces, (b) Iraqi security forces and (c) terrorists and insurgents; and whether the figures specify the number of Iraqi non-combatants who have been killed or injured by the actions of these three groups. [217442]

Mr. Rammell: The Iraqi Ministry of Health (MOH) released a statement on 28 January 2005, which explained that in its figures, collated from some 180 hospitals:

"Casualties of car bombs and other clearly identifiable terrorist attacks are recorded as being caused by terrorist incidents. All other casualties are recorded as military action. The casualties may include insurgents, civilians as well as Iraqi police who are treated in MOH hospitals. The casualties may have been killed or injured by terrorist or coalition forces. Coalition forces include Iraqi police, Iraqi security forces, and the Multi-National forces".

Kyrgyzstan

Mr. Simmonds: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether the UK will be sending election observers to Kyrgyzstan for the election on 27 February. [218305]

Mr. Rammell: Yes. We have provided two long-term observers and 16 short-term observers to the OSCE/ODIHR election observation mission.

Saudi Arabia

Patrick Mercer: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment he has made of the merits of Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia's call for the UK to join Saudi Arabia in the establishment of an international centre for combating terrorism. [216815]

 
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Mr. MacShane: We welcome HRH Crown Prince Abdullah's encouragement of greater international co-operation on counter-terrorism. The recent conference in Riyadh was of considerable political significance. The Saudi Government have promised a fuller explanation of their proposal for an international counter-terrorism centre. We will look at it seriously.

Sudan

Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether there has been conflict between NATO and EU contingency plans for military intervention in the Sudan. [217795]

Mr. Mullin: The UN Security Council is currently planning for the establishment of a UN Peace Support Operation for Sudan to begin deployment in the next few weeks. There are no plans for any military intervention by either the EU or NATO but the EU are giving financial, logistical and technical assistance to the African Union Mission in Darfur.

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