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3 Dec 2007 : Column 912W—continued
Actis: Pensions
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what residual pension liabilities his Department has for employees of Actis formerly employed by CDC. [168724]
Mr. Douglas Alexander: DFID has no liabilities for pension payments to CDC or ex-CDC employees; pensions are provided through a funded pension scheme as described in the CDC annual accounts.
Bond Latin America and the Caribbean Group
Mr. Lancaster: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if he or his ministerial colleagues will meet representatives of the Bond Latin America and the Caribbean Group. [170331]
Mr. Malik: We have been in correspondence with the BOND Latin America and Caribbean Group, and they will meet the head of DFID's Latin America and Caribbean Department.
Departmental Computers
Mr. Gauke: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many of his Department’s (a) computers and (b) laptops have been stolen in 2007; and what the value of those items was. [Official Report, 27 February 2008, Vol. 472, c. 18MC.] [168597]
Mr. Douglas Alexander: 13 laptops have been stolen from the Department for International Development in 2007, all of which had encrypted hard disks. The estimated value of these laptops was £9,087. No other computers have been stolen from DFID in 2007.
Departmental Foreign Workers
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many (a) EU foreign nationals and (b) non-EU foreign nationals are employed by his Department. [168104]
Mr. Malik: Nationality information is provided by staff on an entirely voluntary basis. Of the 1,721 home civil servants employed by the Department for International Development (DFID), 37 have declared themselves to be EU foreign nationals and a further 35 as non-EU foreign nationals.
DFID also employs 858 staff who were recruited locally to work in our network of offices overseas on local terms and conditions of service. Comprehensive nationality information is not readily available for this group, but it can be assumed that the majority will be nationals of the country in which they were recruited, and would therefore be non-EU foreign nationals.
Departmental Land
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what land surplus to his Department's requirements it is (a) selling, (b) leasing and (c) intending to (i) sell and (ii) lease; and what the size and name of each relevant site is. [168851]
Mr. Malik: The only land owned by DFID in the UK is our East Kilbride office site with surrounding grounds. There are no plans to sell or lease this property at the moment.
Departmental Publicity
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much has been spent by his Department on advertising in the last 12 months. [167953]
Mr. Malik: DFID has spent nothing on promotional advertising in the 12 months since November 2006. In the same period £339,745.70 has been spent on advertising for recruitment and procurement procedures.
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what assessment he has made of the quality of his Department's literature aimed at (a) infant, (b) junior, (c) secondary and (d) sixth form pupils; and if he will make a statement. [170684]
Mr. Malik: DFID provides funding to organisations that do produce resources for school children and these are evaluated on an individual project basis. We are currently reviewing what more we can do in this area.
Developing Countries: HIV Infection
Mr. Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what support his Department has provided for (a) care and (b) palliative care for those with HIV/AIDS in developing countries under the G8 commitment to universal access to treatment. [168243]
Mr. Malik: The UK is the second largest bilateral donor on HIV and AIDS and has pledged to spend £1.5 billion on AIDS programmes over the three years up to 2008. While our statistical system tracks broad areas of expenditure such as HIV and AIDS it does not codify specific subsets such as care and palliative care.
However, care and palliative care are an essential part of a comprehensive response to AIDS. Where DFID is providing significant support to country programmes on HIV and AIDS, this includes components to increase capacity of health systems to provide treatment and care, or to develop home and community-based projects. Examples include DFID’s support to develop integrated, community-based, HIV and AIDS home-based care in Zambia, and the Kenyan government’s HIV and AIDS prevention and care project which includes a package of community-based care and support.
In addition to our bilateral support to developing countries we also provide support for care and palliative care through our multilateral partners. For example we recently made an unprecedented long-term commitment to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria of up to £1 billion by 2015. The Global Fund is providing significant funds for care and palliative care including support for the roll-out of palliative care in South Africa and Uganda.
Gaza: Water Supply
Mr. Andy Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of provision of water supplies for the population of Gaza City. [168655]
Mr. Malik: The UN monitors the humanitarian situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. 15 per cent. of the population of the Gaza Strip do not currently have access to an adequate supply of drinking water. The UN’s data are not broken down by city.
Health Insurance
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many officials in (a) his Department and (b) each of its agencies have private health insurance provided as part of their employment package. [167929]
Mr. Malik: DFID does not provide private health insurance for its civil servants working in the UK or overseas. We do, however, provide such insurance for some of our locally engaged staff overseas where there is no equivalent to the national health service and it is normal practice for comparator employers to include private health insurance as part of the employment package.
DFID has one agency, the Commonwealth Scholarships Commission, and this does not employ any staff.
Iraq: Asylum
Mr. Swire:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what estimate he has made of the number of Iraqi refugees in Syria; what discussions he had with the Syrian authorities about
the safe and early return of these refugees; whether the Government are providing financial support to Syria to assist them in housing, feeding and schooling these refugees; and what discussions he has had with (a) his European counterparts and (b) his American counterpart about this situation. [168624]
Mr. Malik: The UN estimates there are between 1.2 and 1.4 million Iraqi refugees in Syria. The UK Government are very concerned about the humanitarian situation for these refugees. Our engagement and support has been through the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), which has an internationally recognised mandate to lead the international response to refugee situations. Their operations are closely co-ordinated with the Syrian Government. Activities include rehabilitation of vacant buildings for housing, food distribution and education initiatives. UNHCR is also investigating reports of increased refugee returns from Syria and the reasons behind such returns. We await the outcome of this work.
Since January, DFID has committed £3 million to UNHCR for their work with Iraqi refugees. This takes our overall Iraq humanitarian response to £15 million this year and to over £130 million since 2003. DFID officials are working closely with American and European aid agencies, such as the European Community Humanitarian Aid Department (ECHO), as well as with other partners to co-ordinate programmes and share information.
Iraq: Reconstruction
Mr. Hague: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what research has been conducted by his Department on UK-funded reconstruction initiatives in Iraq. [168483]
Mr. Malik: The Department for International Development monitors all of its programmes rigorously, including its reconstruction projects in Iraq. In addition to ongoing evaluation and monitoring, we conduct annual reviews—known as “output to purpose reports”. At the end of the project’s life, we conduct project completion reports. These reviews are designed to evaluate the extent to which the projects have achieved their purpose, and they include recommendations for future changes in our programmes. Every programme is given a score from one to four to indicate how successful it has been in meeting its objectives.
In addition to our bilateral programmes, we have channelled a significant share of DFID reconstruction funds for Iraq through multilateral agencies such as the United Nations and the World Bank. These agencies have their own internal evaluation processes. For example, DFID has channelled £70 million to the international reconstruction fund facility for Iraq (IRFFI), a multi-donor trust fund which supports projects of the World Bank and UN agencies. We have argued for increased attention to be paid to monitoring and evaluation of IRFFI-funded programmes on Iraq and as a result an independent review of its work is now under way. This is being co-ordinated by the United Nations Office Project Services (UNOPS).
KPMG
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development (1) how much his Department has paid to KPMG in each of the last five years; [168151]
(2) what contracts his Department has awarded to KPMG in (a) 2007-08 and (b) each of the previous five years. [168157]
Mr. Douglas Alexander: The payments made by DFID to KPMG through our central finance system in each of the last five financial years are listed as follows.
| Financial year | Total payments (£) |
There may be some small value payments made overseas through local payment systems that we are unable to identify through our central system or able to quantify without incurring disproportionate costs.
All contracts awarded to KPMG and their network of affiliated independent firms, have been detailed in the table for each of the years requested. This does not include lower-value contracts issued by DFID’s overseas offices, which could be obtained only by incurring disproportionate cost.
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