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Rwanda

Jeremy Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what assessment he has made of the cost to Rwanda of refugees from the war in eastern Congo; and if he will make a statement. [39611]

Hilary Benn: The Government of Rwanda have established a National Council for Refugees, linked to the Ministry for Local Government and Community Affairs. The Council has responsibility for verifying the status of refugees, for refugee welfare and safety including resettlement, and where appropriate for repatriation. The Council estimates that there are up to 40,000 Congolese refugees currently in Rwanda.

The Council does not have a large budget but relies mostly on funding from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The UNHCR's office in Rwanda estimates costs related to the care and
 
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maintenance of Congolese refugees in Rwanda to be about US $26,826,000 over the past five years. Annual programme expenditure figures (in US$) are as follows:

	US$
2000	3,619,591
2001	4,143,936
2002	3,634,261
2003	3,736,246
2004	3,894,721
2005	4,178,046

These figures do not include Government of Rwanda or UNHCR staff costs.

Western Sudan

John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what assessment he has made of the impact of the withdrawal of UN staff from western Sudan on (a) the humanitarian situation and (b) the internally displaced persons camps. [39704]

Hilary Benn: The UN has gradually reduced its staff in West Darfur in the last quarter of 2005 due to the deteriorating security situation. On 5 January, the UN also raised their security levels to Phase IV in some parts of West Darfur. An estimated 450,000 people are thought to be affected in this area.

This change instigates the move for the UN to emergency operations and life-saving humanitarian relief activities only. The change requires humanitarian agencies to reduce the number of staff in the area, and limit movement areas into designated as insecure. Non-essential staff will be redeployed within the Darfur region to continue operations in key locations. Many UN agencies have already substantially reduced non-essential staff, so further reductions due to the rise in the security level are likely to be limited.

The UN is continuing to make every effort to provide life-saving assistance, including emergency food and health services, as well as the provision of water and shelter to people in camps and other affected populations throughout Darfur. The current insecurity will, however, inevitably have an impact on their capacity to do so.

The UN are currently assessing their operational needs, and are finalising contingency plans in the event of any further deterioration of the situation in West Darfur and Eastern Chad.

DFID remains particularly concerned about this situation and are ready to provide assistance if required.

World Trade Organisation Summit

John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many people he estimates will be lifted out of poverty as a result of the agreements made at the World Trade Organisation summit in Hong Kong. [39700]

Hilary Benn: Despite the modest progress made at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks in Hong Kong, it is not possible at this stage to give any meaningful estimate of the numbers of people that could be lifted out of poverty as a result for two broad reasons. First,
 
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the nature of the agreement reached in Hong Kong, and second because the ministerial conference was just a staging post along the way to conclusion of the Doha Round of talks as a whole. For example, although Ministers agreed that developed countries would give duty and quota free access to their markets for the least developed countries (LDC), there is some flexibility to exclude 3 per cent. of tariff lines during a transition period of indeterminate length. The risk is that developed countries will apply them to precisely those products where the poorest countries have the best chance to export.

On cotton, although agreement was reached on granting duty and quota free access to LDC cotton producers, the bigger problem of tackling US domestic support has not yet been resolved. Although there was agreement on ending agricultural export subsidies and other equivalent measures, this will not be complete until 2013, it is not clear precisely how the phasing out will be achieved, and the more critical issue of agricultural market access for developing countries has also not been resolved, yet despite these uncertainties, the WTO director general, Pascal Lamy, has judged that we are now more than half way to the final deal, and it has set out a potential route-agreement of the final architecture of a deal in agriculture and industrial goods by the end of April 2006; and the substantive conclusion of the round by the end of 2006.

Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if he will make a statement on the outcome of the recent World Trade Organisation talks. [39736]

Hilary Benn: I refer my hon. Friend for Coventry South to the statement made to the House on 20 December 2005, Official Report, columns 1710–12, by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry.

DEFENCE

Administrative Costs

Stewart Hosie: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the total administration costs for his core Department are; and whether these are regarded as (a) identifiable and (b) non-identifiable for the purposes of public expenditure statistical analyses. [39834]

Mr. Ingram: The Ministry of Defence budget does not include a formal administrative costs control. Defence administrative costs are regarded as 'non-identifiable' for the purposes of public expenditure statistical analyses and are contained within this heading in the PESA.

Armed Forces Helpline

Mrs. Humble: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what timetable has been agreed for each stage of development of armed forces helpline standards; on what date he intends to issue a Ministry of Defence policy letter on the issue; and if he will place a copy of the letter in the Library. [38682]

 
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Mr. Touhig: A number of options have been identified for the development of Service helplines. These options are now subject to further discussion with the Equal Opportunities Commission and I will write to my hon. Friend when a course of action has been decided upon.

Armour Land Rovers

Mr. Liddell-Grainger: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what provision is made to armour land rovers in the Gulf. [37235]

Mr. Ingram: Both armoured and non-armoured vehicles are available for use in Iraq. The choice of vehicle for a particular task on an operation will depend on the Commander's assessment of the current threat level and nature of the task.

Bicester Storage Site

Mr. Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many civilian staff are employed at the storage and distribution site at Bicester; and how many of these are employed by (a) contractors and (b) agencies. [38017]

Mr. Ingram: As at 1 November 2005, the number of civilian staff employed in the Defence Distribution and Storage Agency, in the South East Government Office Region was 1,130 Full Time Equivalent (FTE). The number of civilian staff employed in the South East Government Office Region was 16,900 Full time Equivalent (FTE).

Robust data on contractors and agency staff are not held centrally by the Department.

However, local information indicates that as at 1 November 2005, the number of civilian staff employed in the Defence Storage and Distribution Agency, on the Bicester site was approximately 800 people with approximately 40 agency staff. No local records are kept of the number of contractors employed.

Congo (Peacekeeping Forces)

Jeremy Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what contribution has been made by the UK to the UN peacekeeping forces in the Congo for each of the last two years; and if he will make a statement. [39927]

Mr. Ingram: The UK provided five officers to the UN Organisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) in 2004. Our contribution increased to six in early 2005 on the reorganisation of the force structure and remains at that level. The British officers fill key influential posts, notably that of Chief of Staff in the eastern division headquarters in Kisangani and military adviser to the force commander. On short term attachments, we provided two officers to assist in training the eastern division headquarters staffs in late January 2005 and one officer to an UN intelligence assessment mission to MONUC in mid-April 2005.

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