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Departmental Estate

Pete Wishart: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list the former (a) buildings and (b) land of (i) his Department and (ii) (A) non-departmental public bodies, (B) agencies and (C) independent statutory bodies for which his Department is responsible which have been sold since 7 May 1997; what the sale price of each (1) was at the time of sale and (2) is at current prices; and whether the money accrued was (x) retained by his Department and (y) claimed by the Treasury. [40140]

Mr. Douglas Alexander: A list of the buildings and land sold by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the British Council, a Public Corporation receiving a grant-in-aid from the FCO, since the start of financial year 1997–98 will be placed in the Library of the House. No FCO non-departmental public bodies have sold buildings or land since 1997. The BBC World Service is part of the BBC, a public corporation, and is funded by the FCO through a grant in aid. It has sold only one property since 1997, a building in Singapore in 2001, the proceeds of which were approximately £3.3 million and which were re-invested in the World Service's Oman transmitter project.

It was agreed in the 1997 Comprehensive Spending Review settlement that the FCO should retain 100 per cent. of the proceeds from property sales for re-investment, up to an agreed ceiling for each spending review period, which has not been exceeded. We do not re-value properties once sold, and could not do so now without incurring disproportionate costs.

Departmental Expenditure

Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many widescreen televisions have been purchased by his Department for use in London Headquarters in each of the last five years; and what the cost was in each year. [39140]

Mr. Douglas Alexander: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) does not categorise expenditure down to this level of detail in its accounts. In addition, the FCO delegates budgets for such equipment to individual internal departments and does not therefore hold a centralised record of such purchases. The information could therefore only be provided at disproportionate cost.
 
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Standard FCO guidance applies to the purchase of television equipment. This is based on achieving value for money.

Mr. Salmond: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what the administrative costs were of each non-departmental public body for which he has responsibility in the last year for which figures are available; what the total of such costs was in that year; and whether the costs are regarded for the purposes of public expenditure statistical analyses as (a) identifiable and (b) non-identifiable. [40060]

Mr. Douglas Alexander: The breakdown of the administrative costs in 2004–05 for each of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) non-departmental public bodies (NDPB) is as follows:
British Council

	£000
Employee costs	55,897
Accommodation costs, rent, rates etc.	22,000
Office service costs	44,373
Depreciation and cost of capital charges	6,642
Other non-cash items eg auditors' remuneration	155
Total	129,067

	£
Westminster Foundation for Democracy
Employee costs	546,309
Accommodation costs, rent, rates etc.	54,086
Office service costs	218,583
Depreciation and cost of capital charges	11,359
Other non-cash items eg auditors' remuneration	8,114
Total	838,451
Great Britain and China Centre
Employee costs	177,576
Accommodation costs, rent, rates etc.	43,784
Office service costs	15,836
Depreciation and cost of capital charges	5,739
Other non-cash items eg auditors' remuneration	2,891
Total	245,826
Britain Association for Central and Eastern Europe
Employee costs	169,196
Accommodation costs, rent, rates etc.	40,471
Office service costs	16,977
Depreciation and cost of capital charges	5,858
Other non-cash items eg auditors' remuneration	21,175
Total	253,677
Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission
Employee costs	245,204
Accommodation costs, rent, rates etc.	0
Office service costs	19,000
Depreciation and cost of capital charges	0
Other non-cash items eg auditors' remuneration	23,850
Total	288,054

NDPB expenditure, including the administrative costs of all FCO NDPBs, is classified as non-identifiable" for the purposes of public expenditure statistical analysis.

EU Agreements (Human Rights)

Mr. Andrew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what review mechanisms the EU has established to assess how its agreements with third countries are being implemented with regard to human rights. [39319]

 
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Mr. Douglas Alexander: EU Heads of Mission and European Commission delegations report regularly on human rights issues in third countries. The EU holds regular political dialogue with all countries with which it has agreements, and this includes discussion of the relevant human rights provisions. Under the Barcelona Process, the EU is establishing sub-committees with all Mediterranean partners with functioning Association Agreements to monitor the implementation of their human rights commitments. The European Neighbourhood Policy, through its country-specific Action Plans, links the development of relations with the EU to economic and political reform, including human rights and democracy. The Partnership Agreement with African, Caribbean and Pacific countries (the Cotonou Agreement) provides under its Article 8 for a systematic dialogue on the three essential elements of human rights, democratic principles and rule of law, with formal consultation procedures which have already been invoked on a number of occasions. The Council's Working Group on Human Rights is also developing a regular overview of EU dialogues with third countries.

Mr. Andrew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he has received representations from the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights network on their human rights review on the EU and Israel. [39320]

Mr. Douglas Alexander: On 9 December 2005, officials from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office met with representatives of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights network to discuss its human rights review. They discussed at length the recent agreement between the EU and Israel to establish a working group on human rights. My officials were grateful for the information provided by the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights network and are in contact with them regarding specific human rights issues.

Mr. Andrew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State forForeign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will makea statement on arrangements for assessing compliance with the terms of the EU-Israel Association agreement. [39321]

Mr. Douglas Alexander: The EU maintains a regular dialogue at official and ministerial level with Israel to monitor our respective commitments under the framework of the EU-Israel Association Agreement. In this respect, the EU-Israel Political Dialogue and Co-operation sub-committee met for the first time on 21 November 2005 to assess the implementation of the political clauses in the EU-Israel Association Agreement and the Israel European Neighbourhood Policy Action Plan. At the meeting, the EU and Israel proposed the creation of a new working group on human rights.

Mr. Andrew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether the EU has set up a human rights sub-committee under the EU-Israel Association agreement. [39323]

Mr. Douglas Alexander: The EU and Israel agreed to establish a working group on human rights at the EU-Israel Political Dialogue and Co-operation sub-committee on 21 November 2005. The European
 
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Commission will be consulting Israel and member states on the modalities of the EU-Israel Human Rights Working Group with a view to a meeting taking place in the first quarter of 2006. Reinforcing our dialogue with Israel on human rights through this working group will help to monitor the implementation of the relevant provisions of the EU-Israel Association Agreement.

EU Committees

Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many UK Joint Ministerial Committee meetings regarding European Union issues have been held since 1 July 1999. [39218]

Mr. Douglas Alexander: No Joint Ministerial Committee (Europe) meetings were held in 1999 and 2000, two meetings were held in 2001, two in 2002, four in 2003, 11 in 2004 and nine in 2005.

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