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13 Jul 2005 : Column 1041W—continued
Whaling
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will take sanctions against those cultures who (a) are undertaking and (b) intend to undertake illegal whaling. [7273]
Mr. Bradshaw:
We are not aware of any countries which currently undertake (or intend to undertake) illegal whaling. All those members of the International Whaling Commission which conduct whaling operations do so legally. We continue to protest at the highest diplomatic level against those countries' activities; together with other like-minded countries, we made known our opposition to Japanese 'scientific' whaling in a recent joint demarche; in addition, together with colleagues from the French and German embassies, HM ambassador in Reykjavik issued a statement on 24 May repeating our strong opposition to Iceland's continuing 'scientific whaling' programme.
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INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Ethiopia
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if he will make a statement on the current status of agreements to issue reduced price HIV retrovirals in Ethiopia. [11750]
Hilary Benn: In January 2005, the Government of Ethiopia launched a programme to provide anti-retroviral therapy (ART) free of charge for people living with HIV and AIDS . Under this programme, 200 health care facilities will provide ART free of charge to 41,000 people living with HIV and AIDS by the end of this year; by the end of 2006 it is expected that an additional 100,000 patients will benefit from free ART provided by over 300 health care facilities.
By 2010 it is expected that antiretroviral drugs to treat 320,000 patients in Ethiopia will be procured using funds pledged by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM), to which the UK has to date contributed £259 million.
Although Ethiopia's free ART programme will inevitably be heavily dependent on external assistance in the short term, plans to facilitate local manufacture of anti-retroviral drugs, increase government funding for HIV/AIDS programmes and introduce social health insurance schemes are expected to improve prospects for sustainability.
Iraq
Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what estimate his Department has made of the total monthly cost to the UK of civil operations in Iraq since March 2003. [8431]
Hilary Benn: Monthly DFID expenditure on humanitarian and reconstruction assistance to Iraq since March 2003 has been:
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DFID has also disbursed £4.6 million for UK and overseas administrative costs for the programme. Total DFID spending on Iraq from March 2003 to June 2005 was £275 million. Variations in bilateral expenditure from month to month reflect when invoices were received for completed work on different projects.
Civil spending by other Government Departments over the same period included:
| £ million | |
|---|---|
| Foreign and Commonwealth Office | 89 |
| Global Conflict Prevention Pool (joint DFID, FCO and MOD) | 23 |
Other Government Departments met the salary costs of civil servants seconded to work in Iraq during the period between April 2003 and June 2004.
Sir Menzies Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how much has been spent by coalition countries on the reconstruction of Iraq in each month since March 2003. [9020]
Hilary Benn: Monthly DFID expenditure on humanitarian and reconstruction assistance to Iraq since March 2003 has been:
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In total, DFID has disbursed £271 million on humanitarian and reconstruction assistance in Iraq since March 2003. Variations in bilateral expenditure from month to month reflect when invoices were received for completed work on different projects. DFID also provides 19 per cent. of European Community development funding: EC assistance to Iraq totalled €318.5 million for 2003 and 2004, and €205 million has been approved for 2005.
The Global Conflict Prevention Pool (GCPP), funded jointly by DFID, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Ministry of Defence (MOD), disbursed £23 million on Iraq in 2003–04 and 2004–05. In addition, the FCO has spent £38 million on reconstruction activities in Iraq. The MOD has committed £30 million to Quick Impact Projects, most of which has been disbursed.
Comparable figures for other coalition countries are not available. We estimate that their spending on reconstruction programmes since March 2003 has totalled about US $10.3 billion, primarily from the USA (about $8.75 billion) and Japan (about $1.3 billion).
Malaria
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what anti-malaria drugs the Government fund (a) directly, (b) through non-government organisations and (c) through the UN. [11600]
Mr. Thomas: UK support for anti-malarial drugs is through bilateral and multilateral channels—which includes UN agencies. We do not keep specific data on the volume on value of the anti-malarial drugs that go through these different channels.
DFID is a major donor to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM). We have pledged more than £259 million through to 2008. Approximately 31 per cent. of GFATM funds go to malaria—and 49 per cent. of all GFATM funds are used for drugs and commodities, including anti-malarial treatments. These funds support both government and NGO programmes. The UK has provided £48.5 million to the Roll Back Malaria Partnership since 1998 and we are also a major donor to the World Bank which has recently announced the Booster programme for Malaria Control programmes.
Our bilateral programme supports malaria control in two ways. First there are malaria specific programmes—and some of these provide anti-malarial drugs. Second, national malaria control programmes (and thus anti-malarial drugs) are funded through our broader health sector programmes and poverty reduction budget support.
From 1998–99 to date, UK support at country level to specific malaria programmes was approximately £58 million. In addition we have provided approximately £59 million for projects targeted on malaria and other diseases that impact on malaria control. This funding is part of over £1.5 billion committed by the UK to health programmes since 1997.
The UK does not have a specific policy on which anti-malarial drugs it funds through its different programmes. We look to developing countries to
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determine anti-malarial policies appropriate to local resistance patterns and also to the World Health Organisation as the international technical health agency to work with these countries to develop their policies. Recently many countries in sub-Saharan Africa have moved to a policy of recommending Artemisinin-based Combination Therapy (ACT) as first line treatment for malaria.
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