Select Committee on International Development Third Report

6   Other areas of activity

Major appointments

50. We have not had the occasion to interview any new appointees to major posts in the last year. As DFID has a very small number of associated bodies, the Secretary of State makes very few major appointments. However, DFID's Permanent Secretary, Sir Suma Chakrabarti, left his post in December 2007. We look forward to an early opportunity to take evidence from his successor when he or she is in post. The Department has also recently established a new body, the Independent Advisory Committee on Development Impact (IACDI) and, as we said in our report on DFID's Annual Report 2007, we intend to hold an evidence session with its Chairman early in 2008 to discuss IACDI's priorities and work programme.

Associated public bodies

51. DFID has two associated Non-Departmental Public Bodies: the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the UK and the Crown Agents Holding and Realisation Board.[26] DFID also wholly owns CDC Group plc which is the main arm for the Department's interventions in private sector development. We have not undertaken inquiries into these bodies during the period covered by this Report.

Examination of draft legislation

52. The Department has not produced draft legislation.

Quadripartite Committee

53. We continued our contribution to the 'Quadripartite' Committee, together with members of the Defence, Foreign Affairs and Trade and Industry Committees. This Committee carries out detailed scrutiny of the Government's controls on exports of equipment and technology with a military application. This year the Committee examined the Department for Trade and Industry's (now the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform's) 2007 Review of Government Strategic Exports Legislation.

54. We found the Review to have been a constructive process that has addressed many of the issues which we had raised over several years. But the challenge of increased globalisation of the defence industry, the fast pace of technological development, changing proliferation patterns and the threat from terrorists mean that any gaps in the legislation could have serious consequences for the UK. We called on the Government to use the Review to plug the holes in the controls on arms exported from the UK and to keep a tight grip on those trafficking and brokering arms between countries outside the UK. We identified two shortcomings of the Review. First, it ignored the fact that strategic export controls rely on Government-wide cooperation and communication. The Consultation Document does not mention HM Revenue & Customs, which enforces strategic export controls. Second, it ignored the EU dimension: other EU States face exactly the same problems as the UK in administering an export control regime, a significant part of which is derived from EU legislation.

55. The Quadripartite Committee also concluded that the Government had continued to show skill in promoting the International Arms Trade Treaty and, significantly, to press for a comprehensive treaty including both military and dual-use goods and technology. We emphasised that the next year would be crucial for the treaty when the governmental experts start work on the details. We hoped to see significant progress by the time of the Quadripartite's next report.

Conferences of Development Committee Chairmen

56. Our Chairman attended conferences of chairmen of foreign affairs, development and co-operation committees of EU countries in Berlin and Lisbon in 2007 organised by the German and Portuguese EU presidencies. These conferences offer a valuable opportunity to discuss our work with our European counterparts. The Chairman also attended a seminar on the EU-Africa Strategy and participated in the European Development Days conference in Lisbon in November.

Visit to Scotland

57. In June we were able to take the opportunity of visiting the Department for International Development's offices in East Kilbride—a visit originally planned for 2006 but which had to be postponed due to urgent business in the House. We met a large number of DFID staff and were briefed on their activities including those of the UN and Commonwealth Department and the Evaluation Group. We also used our time in Scotland to meet Linda Fabiani, Minister for Europe, External Affairs and Culture in the Scottish Executive, the European and External Relations Committee of the Scottish Parliament and a group of Scottish development non-governmental organisations. We plan to build on our links with the Scottish Parliament Committee and we hope that they will be able to visit us in London in 2008.

Informal meetings and seminars

58. The Committee has continued its practice of holding informal seminars as an integral part of medium- and large-scale inquiries. These 'teach-ins', held before evidence sessions are commenced, provide an opportunity for us to discuss with experts the key areas we should consider in the course of our inquiries. This year we held seminars on: maternal health; Afghanistan; Burma; and Vietnam. At the beginning of the year we held a seminar on China and this will now develop into a full inquiry in 2008. We also held an informal briefing with National Audit Office staff in July which contributed towards our work on the DFID Annual Report 2007.

59. We continued our practice of regular meetings with the UK Permanent Representative to the UN. We met Sir Emyr Jones Parry at the end of 2006 and again in July, jointly with other committees, specifically to discuss climate change. We were fortunate to be able to meet Sir Emyr's successor, Sir John Sawers, in July, just before he took up his new post and discussed a wide range of development issues with him. Other key informal meetings were held with the then Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund in May, jointly with our Treasury Committee colleagues; and with the Russian Deputy Finance Minister in June.

60. In preparation for our inquiry into the peace process in Northern Uganda, before taking formal evidence from Ministers, we held a very interesting and informative informal meeting with a group of Ugandan representatives involved in the peace negotiations, including Rwot David Arcana, the Paramount Chief of the Acholi tribe and Rebecca Amuge Otengo a member of the Ugandan parliament who represents a constituency in the north of the country.

61. We have been fortunate, in addition to formal evidence sessions, to have informal meetings with the Secretary of State for International Development, which enable us to discuss a wide range of general development issues in a relaxed atmosphere. We met the former Secretary of State Hilary Benn in June. We hope to continue this valuable practice with his successor.

Witness feedback

62. We sent witness feedback forms to all witnesses who appeared before the Committee this year. Not many witnesses commented on their experience of giving evidence (16%; or 23% excluding Government witnesses). Those who did express their views were universally positive; the only caveat was that one witness would have liked more time to put over his points.

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26   DFID announced in a Written Ministerial Statement on 7 January 2008 that it will wind up the Board by 31 March 2008: see HC Deb 7 January 2008, col 2WS Back

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Prepared 24 January 2008