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26 Oct 2006 : Column 2084W—continued
Departmental Travel
David T.C. Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much has been spent by his Department on (a) chartering aircraft and (b) non-scheduled air travel, in each of the last five years. [96215]
Hilary Benn: This information is not immediately available, and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. However, since 1999 the Government have published an annual list of all visits overseas undertaken by Cabinet Ministers costing £500 or more during each financial year. Where non-scheduled aircraft are used this is shown in the list. Information for 2005-06 was published on 24 July 2006 with copies of the lists available in the Library of the House.
All Departmental travel is undertaken in accordance with appropriate rules set out for Ministers and staff.
Ethiopia
Mr. Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what conditions relating to good governance his Department places on the distribution of development aid to Ethiopia. [95515]
Hilary Benn: DFID’s programme in Ethiopia is subject to our conditionality policy, published in March 2005 This policy is applied in accordance with a commitment to three important development objectives: reducing poverty and meeting the millennium development goals; respecting human rights and other international obligations; and strengthening financial management and accountability, which reduces the risk of funds being misused through weak administration or corruption.
Concerns about human rights and governance in Ethiopia, during the unrest which followed the elections last year, led the UK and other donors to stop providing the Government of Ethiopia with assistance in the form of direct budget support. In order to ensure that the poor do not suffer as a result of this decision we developed the protection of basic services grant which is accompanied by stringent measures to ensure
transparency and accountability. The grant aims to protect the delivery of basic services, such as education, health, agriculture and water and sanitation, by local government in Ethiopia.
We made a commitment in our White Paper, published in July this year, to conduct quality of governance assessments in partner countries, and we intend to do so in Ethiopia. We have a number of programmes in Ethiopia designed to promote better governance, and the assessment will help us to identify how these programmes might be strengthened.
HIV/AIDS
Chris McCafferty: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if he will commit funding to (a) tracking and (b) assessing grants made by his Department for the provision of HIV/AIDS services via sexual and reproductive health clinics in developing countries; and if he will encourage other aid donors to do the same. [96657]
Hilary Benn: Every DFID project or programme, including poverty reduction budget support, with an approved commitment of £1 million or over is reviewed annually to ensure that it is meeting its aims. In addition a project completion report is prepared during the last three months of the project or when actual expenditure reaches the 95 per cent. threshold.
If a DFID funded programme was designed to integrate HIV and AIDS services into sexual and reproductive health clinics it would be ‘tracked’ with both AIDS and reproductive health markers through DFlD’s Policy Information Marker System (PIMS). DFID has begun to review the elements of sexual and reproductive health, including HIV prevention, that are included in current/recent programmes that have a reproductive health PIMS marker.
DFID encourages all donors to respect the international agreement reached around three core principles to improve co-ordination of the national response to AIDS. This is known as the ‘Three Ones’: one agreed HIV/AIDS action framework, one national AIDS co-ordinating authority and one agreed country-level evaluation system. The ‘Three Ones’ helps donors, multilaterals, the private sector and civil society to work together with national government in a more effective and harmonised way.
Muslim Council of Britain
Michael Gove: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much (a) financial support and (b) support in kind his Department and its agencies have given to the Muslim Council of Britain in each year since 1997. [96280]
Hilary Benn: To date no financial support has been given to the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB)
MCB were successful in securing the commitment of funding for a development awareness project among the Muslim community through the 2005-06 Development Awareness Fund which is a competitive funding scheme. The programme has not yet begun and DFID has not given any funding for activity yet.
DFID has had dealings with the MCB on occasions, including co-chairing a seminar for Islamic NGOs in 2005, and in 2001 publishing its fourth Target 2015 booklet, in association with the Muslim Council of Britain, Muslim Aid and Islamic Relief. These activities did not involve direct funding of MCB.
Duchy of Lancaster
Knowledge Network
Mr. Heald: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what the budget is for the modernised version of the Knowledge Network. [96389]
Mr. McFadden: The new Knowledge Network provides services to 20 customers, including government lawyers (Legal Information ONline) and statisticians (Statnet). The service has been modernised and is now delivered by an outsourced service provider.
Each customer is responsible for buying the particular Knowledge Network services that they require. Specific information regarding their budgets is not held centrally.
Parliamentary Ombudsman
Chris Grayling: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Pendle (Mr. Prentice) of 12 June 2006, Official Report, column 961W, on the Parliamentary Ombudsman, to which three recommendations made by the Parliamentary Ombudsman the Cabinet Office declined to give full effect. [97379]
Hilary Armstrong: The three recommendations relate to Code of Practice on Access to Government Information cases reference A7/03, A16/03 and A34/05.
Information on cases A7/03 and A16/03 is set out in the ombudsman’s report “Access to Official Information: Investigations Completed: November 2002-June 2003 (HC 951, July 2003)”, and can also be accessed through the ombudsman’s website at http://www.ombudsman.org.uk/improving_services/selected_cases/AOI/aoi0306/index.html.
Information on case A34/05, together with further information on case A16/03, is set out in the ombudsman’s report “Access to Official Information: Investigations Completed July 2004-March 2005, Volume 2 (HC 63-11, May 2005)”, and can also be accessed through the ombudsman’s website at http://www.ombudsman.org.uk/improving_services/selected_cases/AOI/aoi0503-2/index.html.
Copies of both these reports are available in the Library for the reference of Members.
Staff Salaries
Stephen Hammond: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster when she expects to answer question 95495, on staff salaries, tabled by the hon. Member for Wimbledon on 17 October 2006 for named day answer on 20 October 2006. [97377]
Mr. McFadden: I replied to the hon. Member on 23 October 2006, Official Report, column 1622W.
Tablighi Jammaat
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Minister without Portfolio whether (a) she and (b) others in her office have met representatives of Tablighi Jammaat during the last three years; and if she will make a statement. [94346]
The Minister without Portfolio: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given today by my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster whether (a) Ministers and (b) others in her Department have met representatives of Tablighi Jammaat during the last three years; and if she will make a statement. [94347]
Hilary Armstrong: I am not aware of any Cabinet Office Ministers during the last three years meeting representatives of the Tablighi Jammaat.
Officials meet many individuals and outside interest groups as part of the process of the development of Government policy and advice. There is no central record of meetings between these groups and officials. Therefore, the information requested could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Deputy Prime Minister
Departmental Staff
Mr. Heald: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister (1) what staff posts have been created in his Department since the recent machinery of Government changes; [96395]
(2) how many full-time equivalent staff (a) work in his Private Office, (b) work in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's Secretariat and (c) provide support to the Deputy Prime Minister from within the Cabinet Office; [96397]
(3) how many staff in his Department work in (a) 26 Whitehall, (b) the Department for Communities and Local Government buildings and (c) other government buildings. [96401]
The Deputy Prime Minister: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 9 October 2006, Official Report, column 72W.
Mr. Heald: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many full-time equivalent press officers (a) work and (b) provide assistance for his Department. [96400]
The Deputy Prime Minister: One.
Ministerial Visits
Mr. Heald: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the budget is for his impending visit to the Far East; how many civil servants will be accompanying him; and what the itinerary is for the visit. [97205]
Nick Harvey: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister (1) what overseas visits he has made on official business in each of the last 12 months; if he will place in the Library copies of reports made following those visits; and what the cost was of the visits; [97355]
(2) if he will place in the Library a copy of a report of his recent visit to Japan; and what plans he has for overseas visits in each of the next 12 months. [97356]
The Deputy Prime Minister: Details of the cost of overseas travel undertaken by Cabinet Ministers costing £500 or more is published annually. Information for 2005-06 was published on 24 July 2006. Copies of the lists are available in the Library for the reference of Members.
All ministerial travel is undertaken in accordance with the rules set out in the ‘Ministerial Code’ and ‘Travel by Ministers’, copies of which are available in the Library for the reference of Members. All official travel is undertaken in accordance with the requirements of the ‘Civil Service Management Code’, a copy of which is also available in the Library for the reference of Members.
Television Licences
Mr. Heald: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister whether the television licence fee in his official ministerial residence is paid for from public funds. [96396]
The Deputy Prime Minister: It is not.
Health
Accident and Emergency Departments
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many hospital blue light accident and emergency departments she plans to downgrade to urgent care centre status in each year to 2010. [95088]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Changes in the services provided by hospital departments are matters for local decision. The guiding principle of reconfiguration is to improve the clinical quality, safety and sustainability of patient services.
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many people who registered at the accident and emergency department at Wycombe Hospital (a) in each year from 2001 until the implementation of the Shaping Health Services proposal on that department and (b) since the implementation of the Shaping Health Services proposal were (i) treated at Wycombe Hospital and (ii) transferred for treatment to (A) Stoke Mandeville, (B) Wrexham Park and (C) other hospitals; [96705]
(2) how many people in Buckinghamshire were taken by ambulance from locations in the county other than hospital accident and emergency departments to (a) Wycombe Hospital, (b) Stoke Mandeville Hospital, (c) Wrexham Park Hospital and (d) other hospitals in each year since 2001. [96706]
Ms Rosie Winterton [holding answer 24 October 2006]: The information requested is not held centrally.
Ambulances
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many ambulance admissions there were to (a) Worthing hospital and (b) the Royal Sussex county hospital Accident and Emergency Department in the last period for which figures are available. [93359]
Andy Burnham: The information requested is not collected centrally.
Cancelled Operations
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many operations were cancelled because of (a) managerial or administrative reasons and (b) unclean or missing surgery equipment in the (i) Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire strategic health authority area and (ii) Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust area; and if she will make a statement. [95417]
Andy Burnham [holding answer 23 October 2006]: The Department collects data on the number of operations cancelled at the last minute for non-clinical reasons. The following table shows the latest data available for the period April to June 2006, as published on 25 August 2006, for the number of operations cancelled at the last minute for non-clinical reasons for acute trusts in the Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire area.
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