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23 May 2006 : Column 1612W—continued
Vote Office Print Unit
Mr. Amess: To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission what the retail price per issue was of (a) the daily, (b) the weekly and (c) the bound edition of the Official Report in each year since 1988; and how many copies were sold. [71972]
Nick Harvey: Pricing and sales of House of Lords publications are not a matter for the Commission. Pricing and sales of House of Commons publications became a matter for the Commission only in November 1996, when the Stationery Office was privatised. Complete records of copies sold are available only back to 1999. The price and sales information available for the publications requested is as follows:
| Official Report: Daily Part | ||
| Financial Year | Price (£) | Copies sold |
| Official Report: Weekly | ||
| Financial Year | Price (£) | Copies sold |
| Official Report: Bound Volume | ||
| Financial Year | Price (£) | Copies sold |
| (1) Bound Volume format changed from two to three-weekly content and the price was adjusted accordingly. |
International Development
Bangladesh
Margaret Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what measures he is taking to assist Bangladesh in tackling arsenic poisoning in its water supply. [72501]
Mr. Thomas: Arsenic contamination in Bangladesh’s water supply is naturally occurring, and mainly affects shallow tube wells. DFID is currently providing £1 million to the Government of Bangladesh’s (GoB) Arsenic Policy Support Unit to ensure that arsenic contamination is addressed as part of the GoB’s safe drinking water policy. A new programme is being developed in conjunction with the GoB and the World Bank to prepare a groundwater management strategy, which will promote and enable greater use of deep tube wells which are uncontaminated by arsenic.
In addition, DFID is providing £15 million to the Advancing Sustainable Environmental Health (ASEH) programme in Bangladesh, implemented by WaterAid.
ASEH has provided a rigorous and effective system for testing and monitoring arsenic in all new groundwater supplies provided since 2002. ASEH also provides information and support to enable communities to access arsenic free water supplies.
DFID is also planning to contribute up to £40 million to the GoB/UNICEF Sanitation, Hygiene, Education and Water Supply—Bangladesh (SHEWA-B) programme. SHEWA-B includes a significant arsenic mitigation component, and will target almost 4,000 villages (6,400,000 people) where over 80 per cent. of tube wells are affected.
Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what assessment he has made of the extent to which the sixth round of grants by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria will receive adequate funding from the international community. [72514]
Mr. Thomas: The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has estimated that it will need approximately US$1 billion for round six. Currently only US$46 million is available. The Global Fund needs significantly more funding from existing and potential donors to ensure that the sixth round of new grants is approved and fully funded in 2006. This will be a challenge for the Global Fund. The UK will continue to work with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to encourage other donors including the EU, the private sector and oil rich countries to increase their support to the Global Fund.
The UK provides very generous support to the Global Fund. We doubled our pledge for 2006 and 2007 to £100 million in each year. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is only one part of the UK's contribution to tackling AIDS. We are committed to spend at least £1.5 billion between 2005-06 and 2007-08 on the global AIDS response.
Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps his Department is taking to encourage (a) other countries and (b) private sector donors to contribute funding to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. [72515]
Mr. Thomas: The UK strongly supports the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and has committed £359 million to the fund for 2002-08, including £100 million for 2006 and the same for 2007. The UK is meeting its “fair share” of support to the Global Fund and we need to ensure that other donors including the private sector contribute their “fair share”.
We are encouraging other donors in our bilateral discussions to contribute to the Global Fund. We will continue to lobby the G8 for extra funds.. We are also encouraging the G8 Finance Ministers meeting in June to take stock of existing Global Fund commitments in order to agree additional finance for 2006 and 2007 at the St. Petersburg Summit. We will also continue using our influence with the private sector, Oil Rich States and the EC.
Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if he will increase his Department’s contribution to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. [72516]
Mr. Thomas: The UK provided very generous support to the Global Fund Replenishment in 2005 and has doubled its pledge for 2006 and 2007 to £100 million in each year. This means that our overall share of support for the Global Fund at around 5.1 per cent. is consistent with our support over the 2001-05 period. The UK is meeting its “fair share” and other donors need to do the same; we are encouraging them to do so.
The UK has no further plans at the moment to increase its contribution to the Global Fund. The Global Fund is only one part of our contribution to tackling AIDS; the UK accounted for 20 per cent. of all direct bilateral donor commitments to the fight against AIDS in 2004(1). We are committed to spend at least £1.5 billion on the global AIDS response in the three years from 2005-06 to 2007-08. Our direct support goes to 39 different countries.
(1) Source:
(Resource Needs For An Expanded Response to AIDS in Low and Middle Income Countries) UNAIDS August 2005
Home Working
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many people in his Department have been enabled to work from home in each of the last three years; and if he will make a statement. [67996]
Mr. Thomas: DFID does not keep records of the number of home workers.
However, DFID operates a ‘one machine’ policy under which each member of staff elects to be equipped with either a desktop computer or, subject to the approval of their Head of Department, a laptop computer. The laptop option enables staff to work from home or at other remote locations while travelling on behalf of the Department. At 31 March, 1,678 staff had been issued with laptops.
DFID is committed to improving work/life balance, values diversity and accommodates a wide range of different work patterns including the use of home working. DFID’s policy is set out both in the Staff Handbook, which is available to all staff electronically, and in a booklet “Flexible Working”, which is given to staff on their arrival.
Information Technology
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what the (a) originally estimated, (b) most recently estimated and (c) outturn cost was in each of the five largest information technology contracts agreed with outside suppliers over the last five years. [71769]
Mr. Thomas: I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to the hon. Member for Chipping Barnet (Mrs. Villiers) on 20 January 2006, Official Report, column 1642W, for the figures for the three largest IT projects over the last five years.
DFID has also let a number of small IT related contracts. However, our central records do not distinguish IT contracts, so provision of details for these contracts would incur disproportionate costs.
Millennium Development Goals
Mark Hunter: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the millennium development goal for universal primary education is met by 2015. [72376]
Mr. Thomas: DFID plans to spend £1.4 billion on education from 2005-08. This support helps countries to invest in teacher training and salaries, purchase text books and construct new schools and classrooms. DFID plans to further increase its support and aims to spend approximately £8.5 billion in support of education over the next ten years. This long-term commitment will provide governments with predictable funding against which they can prepare ambitious 10 year investment plans to achieve the millennium development goal (MDG) for universal primary education.
More information on DFID’s work on universal primary education, including DFID’s work in specific countries, is included in the DFID departmental report 2006 which is available in the Libraries of the House.
Overseas Development Agency
David T.C. Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what the expenditure of the Overseas Development Agency was in (a) 2004 and (b) 2005, broken down by (i) staffing, (ii) accommodation and departmental offices, (iii) travel expenses, (iv) development project funding and (v) other expenditure. [69992]
Hilary Benn: DFID’s expenditure for 2004-05 and 2005-06 was as follows:
| £000 | ||
| Expenditure | 2004-05 | 2005-06 |
| (1) Rounded to the nearest million. Notes: 1. Staff costs include wages and salaries, social security costs and other pension costs for permanently employed staff, Ministers, special advisers and “other”, which include costs for seconded officers and those on fixed term contracts. The figures for 2005-06 are provisional, as final outturn figures are not yet available. 2. Accommodation and departmental office costs include rent, rates utilities and maintenance costs. 3. The figures for travel reflect all domestic and overseas travel for Ministers, advisers and officials, which include the costs of accommodation and subsistence. 4. Bilateral funding includes all forms of direct assistance. The 2005-06 figures are provisional, as final outturn figures are not yet available. 5. Other spend represents both administration costs and programme costs, not covered by the previous headings, examples of which would be staff training—on the administration expenditure and multilateral contributions on programme expenditure. |
Private Office Staff
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what percentage of his private office staff is (a) male, (b) female and (c) disabled. [69021]
Mr. Thomas: The following table shows the percentage of current DFID private office staff by gender and those who had declared a disability. Declaration of a disability is voluntary.
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