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3 Apr 2008 : Column 1228W—continued
Departmental Coordination: Overseas Aid
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what recent discussions he has had on the Delivery Agreement for Public Service Agreement 29 with (a) the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, (b) the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and (c) HM Treasury; and what his Department’s specific responsibility is for each of the eight indicators associated with this target. [197776]
Mr. Malik:
The Delivery Board for the PSA on International Poverty Reduction (PSA 29) met for the first time in February. The Department for International Development’s (DFID) permanent secretary chaired the meeting and the permanent secretaries from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Her Majesty’s Treasury
and the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs attended, as did a representative from the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit (PMDU). The delivery board are scheduled to meet in April to finalise the performance framework.
Under the framework, DFID will lead on each of the eight indicators, including establishing the baseline position and targets, and the monitoring of progress against the targets set.
Departmental Public Expenditure
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what the reasons were for his Department’s £91 million use of end year flexibility. [197778]
Mr. Malik: The Department for International Development’s (DFID) £91 million end of year flexibility (EYF) consists of £75.5 million resource and £15.1 million capital.
Of the £75.5 million resource, £63.5 million is near cash and £12 million non-cash. We keep a small non-cash EYF stock to manage fluctuations in International Finance Institutions’ (IFI) capital charges.
The £63.5 million near cash resource EYF stock represents about 1.5 per cent. of DFID resource outturn in 2006-07 and represents a prudent end-year operating margin.
The £15.1 million capital EYF has been drawn down and utilised during 2007-08.
Departmental Standards
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what recent assessment he has made of his Department’s contribution to Public Service Agreements (a) 3, (b) 25, (c) 27 and (d) 30. [197773]
Mr. Malik: The 30 new public service agreements (PSA) set out the key priority outcomes the Government want to achieve in the 2008-11 spending period. The Department for International Development (DFID) is a formal delivery partner for the PSAs on climate change (PSA 27) and conflict prevention (PSA 30). In addition, through our work on poverty reduction, the Department will contribute to delivery of the PSAs on migration (PSA 3) and counter-terrorism (PSA 26).
In consultation with others, we are helping to design a suite of multi-donor climate investment funds to reduce poverty through action on climate change. These will be launched in 2008 and will be capitalised by funds from the £800 million in the international window of the UK’s Environmental Transformation Fund. In addition, we are supporting the Global Environment Facility (GEF), multilateral development banks’ Clean Energy Investment Framework and UN Special Adaptation Funds, and working to address the information and knowledge gaps relating to climate change impacts in Africa. We will also be looking to address climate change through our bilateral programmes, such as in China and Bangladesh.
Many of the countries and regions which are the focus of the new conflict prevention PSA are priorities for DFID. Reducing poverty in these fragile and conflict-affected states is essential to tackle the conditions in which conflict emerges and to achieve the MDGs. DFID is increasing levels of funding to fragile and conflict affected countries. In addition to these efforts, DFID is working with FCO and MOD to help prevent, manage and resolve conflict through the Conflict Prevention Pool (CPP) and the Stabilisation Aid Fund (SAF). The total value of these funds is set to rise from £139m (2007-08) to £229 million (2010-11). The PSA also focuses on building more effective international institutions. DFID has been working with FCO and MOD to strengthen the UN’s capacity to prevent conflict and build peace, and has committed funds of more than £50 million over three years to the Peacebuilding Fund, the Peacebuilding Support Office and UNDP’s Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery.
DFID is contributing £35 million to a new cross-government Returns and Reintegration Fund led by the FCO. The Fund will be headed by a DFID staff member and DFID country teams will be contributing their expertise to make sure fund projects are as effective as they can be.
Within the parameters of the International Development Act, our programme will make a positive contribution to the Government’s counter-radicalisation effort. In November, the Prime Minister publicly committed DFID, FCO and the British Council to spending
“around £400 million over the next three years....to tackle radicalisation and promote understanding overseas”.
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what estimate he has made of the likely date for the next update of progress on indicators (a) 1, (b) 2, (c) 3, (d) 4 and (e) 7 associated with Public Service Agreement 29. [197774]
Mr. Malik: The first planned reporting round relevant to the reporting of Public Service Agreement (PSA) 29 is the 2008 Autumn Performance Report, which is usually published in November or December.
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what progress has been made towards his Department’s April deadline for establishing the baseline data for the eight indicators associated with Public Service Agreement 29. [197775]
Mr. Malik: Official international data showing progress towards the millennium development goals (MDG) indicators, which are published by the United Nations, will be used to set the baseline position for the eight indicators associated with public service agreement 29. These data were last published in July 2007. We expect an update of the data in June or July.
Departmental Video Conferencing
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if he will set a target to increase the use of video-conferencing by his Department to reduce the need to travel to meetings. [195879]
Mr. Malik: There are no plans to set a target to increase the use of video-conferencing with the specific aim of reducing travel. The Department for International Development (DFID) does however have a target to reduce air miles flown by 5 per cent. per annum and video-conferencing is one tool helping to achieve this.
Meetings are arranged around the needs of the business but before any travel is authorised in DFID staff must confirm that they have considered using video-conference.
DFID currently use a total of 119 video-conference units, in the UK and overseas. In the last year DFID held 7,169 managed video conferences. A recent study showed that video-conferencing in DFID avoids more than two million miles of air travel a year.
Gaza: Politics and Government
Jo Swinson: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what assessment he has made of the humanitarian situation in Gaza; and what estimate he has made of the number of people (a) at risk of starvation, (b) without access to basic medical treatment and (c) without access to safe drinking water; and if he will make a statement. [197974]
Mr. Douglas Alexander: The Department for International Development (DFID) is deeply concerned by the humanitarian situation in Gaza. Currently there is no danger of starvation but an estimated 1.1 million Gazans—80 per cent. of Gaza's population—is at least partly dependent on food aid. Food aid provided by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and the World Food Programme (WFP) covers 60 per cent. to 80 per cent. of calorific need of those that receive it, with people left to buy the remainder.
Palestinians currently have access to basic medical treatment and medicines continue to enter Gaza. However, the health care system is under strain as infrastructure and equipment deteriorates. The World Health Organization reports that 85 essential items are nearly or completely depleted, largely because of procurement problems.
The water and sanitation sector throughout Gaza is facing severe difficulties. Gaza has traditionally had problems with the purity of its drinking water but the current situation is exacerbated by power cuts affecting pumping stations; 90 per cent. of mains water is polluted and up to 60 million litres of raw or poorly treated sewage are being discharged into the Mediterranean sea each day. Figures are unavailable for the number of people affected by the polluted water.
This situation has not been caused by a lack of response or support from the international community, rather the continued restrictions on access to Gaza.
To help ease the situation the UK provided £15.45 million in March 2008 through the European Commission's PEGASE mechanism, supporting essential services and providing allowances to 77,000 key workers. To support the work of UNRWA DFID provided £15.6 million in 2007-08.
Overseas Aid
Stephen Hesford: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much was allocated by his Department to non-governmental organisations providing international relief or development aid in each year between 2005 and 2007. [197611]
Mr. Malik: Total UK Bilateral Official Development Assistance (ODA) channelled through non-governmental organisations (NGO's) between 2005 and 2007 is set out in the following table below:
| UK Bilateral ODA channelled through NGO's between 2005 and 2007 | |
| £ million | |
| Calendar year | Total |
Pakistan: Asylum
Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what estimate his Department has made of the number of (a) refugees and (b) internally displaced people resident in (i) Pakistan and (ii) Tanzania in each year since 2000; and if he will make a statement. [197104]
Gillian Merron: The information requested is as follows:
Estimate of refugee numbers in Pakistan for each year since 2000 are as follows (figures collected by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees):
| Number of refugees (million) | |
There are no comprehensive figures on internally displaced people in Pakistan during this period.
However, two recent humanitarian disasters in Pakistan led to the creation of IDPs over a short-term period. Approximately 250,000 were internally displaced following floods in the provinces of Balochistan and Sindh in June 2007 and as a result of the October 2005 earthquake, the estimates of IDPs were: 350,000 (2005); 297,000 (2006); 38,000 (2007) and 4.933 (as at 1 February 2008).
Estimate of refugee numbers in camps in Tanzania for each year since 2000 are as follows (figures collected by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees):
| Number of refugees (thousand) | |
In addition to the numbers above, a further 218,000 Burundian refugees are also living outside camps in Tanzania.
Tanzania has no identified internally displaced people.
Rackspace
Mr. Hands: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what the value was of each contract awarded to Rackspace by his Department in each of the last nine years. [197502]
Mr. Malik: The Department for International Development (DFID) has no record of current or previous contracts with Rackspace for the period requested.
Children, Schools and Families
Children in Care
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what steps the Government has taken to improve the lives of children in care. [198544]
Kevin Brennan:
The Government published the “Care Matters” White Paper in June 2007 setting out reforms needed to transform the life chances of children and young people in care, to ensure good parenting from everyone in the system and the centrality of the voice of the child. It built on responses to the Green Paper “Care Matters: Transforming the Lives of Children and Young People in Care”, and the
conclusions of four working groups established to investigate best practice in supporting those in care.
Since 2000-01 local authority expenditure on these services has increased from £1.3 billion to just under £2.1 billion in 2005-06, an increase of 57 per cent. In addition, the White Paper announced around £300 million extra funding over four years to support the further improvements needed. A range of legislative changes to support the “Care Matters” reforms are also currently being debated in Parliament as part of the Children and Young Persons Bill.
On 26 March 2008 the Government, Association of Directors of Children’s Services, and Local Government Association published an implementation plan “Care Matters: Time to deliver for children in care”. It encourages systematic planning for service improvement and lists tools, resources and support available to assist local improvement. The implementation plan can be found at:
The process of improvement will be taken forward through a series of regional conferences for those involved in working with looked after looked after children over the spring and summer.
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