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26 Oct 2005 : Column 425W—continued

Smoking Ban

Mrs. Ellman: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what discussions he has had with the Department for Health on the decision to ban smoking in enclosed work places in Northern Ireland. [20419]

Mr. Woodward: No formal ministerial discussions have taken place with the Department of Health about the decision to introduce comprehensive controls on where people smoke in enclosed public places and work places in Northern Ireland by April 2007, however there were informal ministerial discussions prior to my announcement of smoking controls for Northern Ireland. Officials from UK Health Departments meet regularly to discuss areas of mutual interest in the field of tobacco control policy.

Sustainable Development

Mark Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (1) what steps have been taken by his Department to review its arrangements for public reporting of its sustainable development impacts; [18444]

(2) what arrangements his Department has to reportpublicly on its key sustainable development impacts. [18445]

Angela E. Smith: The Department of the Environment (DOE) is taking the lead in developing the Sustainable Development Strategy for Northern Ireland which is programmed to launch on 13 December 2005.

Incorporated within the strategy will be a set of commitments specific to Northern Ireland which will address some of the key social, economic and environmental issues.

The strategy will be followed by a series of implementation plans which will use lower level objectives, targets and indicators to help translate the strategy into action on the ground and which will permit progress to be measured.

The specific arrangements for publishing progress against the indicators will be addressed within the strategy document which is currently being developed.

Data from Northern Ireland will also contribute to the UK headline indicators of sustainable development as part of our commitment to the overarching UK Framework for sustainable development One future—different paths' launched in March 2005.

Ulster Historical Foundation

Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will provide the Ulster Historical Foundation (UHF) with the funding required to make UHF research papers accessible to the public. [19937]

Mr. Hanson: The UHF are in the process of establishing whether there would be sufficient demand for access to their research papers to justify expenditure in this area and are planning to bid for lottery funding should the demand exist.
 
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INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Departmental Finance

Chris McCafferty: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development (1) if he could list his Department's bilateral aid by sector to (a) sexual and reproductive health/population and to (b) HIV under the headings (i) project, (ii) programme, (iii) technical, (iv) grants, (v) humanitarian aid and (vi) CDC investments for 2004–05; [20710]

(2) what aid his Department has provided for reproductive health programmes in each of the last five years; [20820]

(3) if he will list his Department's bilateral aid to family planning programmes in each of the last five years. [20821]

Mr. Thomas: The data on HIV and reproductive health spending in 2004–05 is not yet available. Expenditure figures are being collated and we expect to be able to publish them shortly. We also want to make sure that these figures will be consistent, for the purpose of making accurate comparisons, with previous years spending. We will therefore report on the whole time series, including spending in previous years, when we finalise the 2004–05 figures. I will write to the hon. Member for Calder Valley when the spending analysis is complete.

Chris McCafferty: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what his Department's total expenditure was in 2004–05 to (a) UNFPA, (b) WHO, (c) UNICEF, (d) UNAIDS, (e) International Planned Parenthood Federation, (f) Marie Stopes International and (g) Interact Worldwide; and if he will make a statement. [20711]

Mr. Thomas: DFID's total expenditure in 2004–05 for the international Planned Parenthood Federation was £6,000,000, for the Marie Stopes International, £1,698,000 and for Interact Worldwide £474,000.

With regards to total expenditure for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA),the World Health Organisation (WHO), UNICEF and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), our statistical system does not disaggregate payments made to individual agencies at the country level. Contributions made centrally through DFID's multilateral programme to these agencies in 2004–05 were: to the UNFPA £20,038,000, the WHO £27,649,000, UNICEF £19,771,000 and UNAIDS £8,069,000.

As part of an exercise looking at funding across the United Nations during the calendar year of 2004, the agencies were asked to confirm total DFID contributions, including those made through our bilateral programme at country level. These were for the UNFPA £22,700,000, for the WHO £54,725,725, for UNICEF £102,152,173 and for UNAIDS £9,410,194.

Chris McCafferty: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what his Department's contribution to the Human Reproduction Programme in the World Health Organisation was in (a) 2000–01, (b) 2001–02, (c) 2002–03, (d) 2003–04 and (e) 2004–05; and if he will make a statement. [20712]


 
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Mr. Thomas: Since 2003–04, we have provided support to the Human Reproduction Programme (HRP) through and as part of our overall core contribution to the World Health Organisation (WHO), leaving it to the WHO to determine the allocation of resources for its various areas of work, including HRP. For 2000–01, we provided £750,000 to HRP; for 2001–02, £576,000; and for 2002–03, £250,000. We are currently reviewing the arrangements for our support to HRP.

Chris McCafferty: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what funding his Department allocated to sexual and reproductive health non-governmental organisations in 2004–05. [20793]

Mr. Thomas: DFID provided support to NGOs working in sexual and reproductive health in a number of ways in 2004–05. We provided central support to organisations such as the International Planned Parenthood Foundation (IPPF), to advocate for and provide sexual and reproductive health services (£6 million) to the Population Council for work to promote adolescent sexual health (£921,000) and to the International Projects Assistance Services (IPAS), for work to address unsafe abortion (£722,000).

Through our Civil Society Challenge Fund and country programmes, we also provided support to Interact Worldwide (£474,000) and the Marie Stopes International (MSI) (£1.69 million) to extend service provision and also to Population Services International (£11.9 million) to expand social marketing. We also provided support for a range of other reproductive health NGOs including the Alan Guttmacher Institute, Engender Health, Global Campaign for Microbicides/PATH, Family Care International and Reproductive Health Matters.

G8 Action Plan for Africa

Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what the timetable is for drafting the G8 Action Plan for Africa; and what role his Department has in the process. [22007]

Hilary Benn: The G8 published a joint progress report in July on the G8 Action Plan for Africa agreed at the Kananaskis Summit in 2002. At the time, DFID published a report specifically on the UK's progress. At Gleneagles, G8 and African Leaders agreed that there should be a Joint Action Plan, covering commitments by Africa and all its development partners (not just the G8) and tasked the Africa Partnership Forum (APF) to monitor implementation.

In London on 4–5 October, the APF agreed to establish a Joint Action Plan by its next meeting in April 2006. The draft Plan is being developed by a Task Team including APF co-chairs for 2005 and 2006: the UK, Nigeria, the Netherlands, Russia, Norway and the African Union/New Partnership for Africa's Development. The Department for International Development is participating in this process on behalf of the UK and in consultation with other relevant Government departments.
 
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