Responses from the Department for International
Development to Questions from the Committee on the Spring Supplementary
Estimate 2006-07
Thank you for your letter of 6 March asking
for further information on certain items in DFID's Spring Supplementary
Estimate, which was laid before Parliament on 20 February. The
answers to your questions are set out below:
RfR1-D provision (multilateral aid) is being increased
by £92 million. How much of this is for the Fast Track Initiative?
And of the remainder, which programmes are mainly expected to
be increased, and how much extra will each of those programmes
receive?
Our 2006-07 contribution to the Fast Track Initiative,
which was not provided for in the original Estimate, was £70
million. Other significant changes include increased spending
on bilateral debt relief (about £13 million) and on Commonwealth
programmes (£9 million). Provisional outturns for budget
lines will be published in the 2007 Departmental Report in May
2007.
What particular programmes mainly account for
the reduction in the RfR1-A provision (sub-Saharan Africa)? The
lower than previously expected expenditure is a product of programme
slippage [Memorandum para 3.3]. How much of the £30 million
reduction in provision will be made good with a larger Estimate
for 2007-08?
The main changes in provision for sub-Saharan
Africa relate to change in the profile of spending on budgetary
aid in Rwanda and for regional programmes. Expenditure against
agreed commitments which is not incurred in 2006-07 will be met
from 2007-08 budget allocations for reducing poverty in sub-Saharan
Africa. We expect these to be £185 million more than the
comparable figure in the Spring Supplementary Estimate for 2006-07.
Your memorandum refers to "no change in our
plans to spend £1.25 billion in Africa in 2007-08".
How does this commitment reconcile to the expenditure plans set
out in your 2006 Departmental Report, which envisages a figure
of £1.33 billion [Cm 6824, Table 2 on page 222]?
The figure of £1,334 million includes administration
costs; programme expenditure within this is £1,281 million.
This was a provisional planning figure; allocations have since
been revised to take account of an increase (from £540 to
£701 million) in the amount required within 2007-08 DEL for
EC development programmes. Revised figures will be published in
the 2007 Departmental Report; these will be consistent with the
Government's commitment to spending £1.25 billion as bilateral
aid to Africa in 2007-08.
RfR1-G provision is being increased by £30
million to make a provision for "a property formerly occupied
by DfID's scientific agency" [Memorandum para 6.3]. Which
property is this? What was the book value and what is the expected
disposal value? Have there been any particular factors that have
suppressed the likely disposal receipts?
In 1989, the Natural Resources Institute (NRI)
moved into buildings on the site of the former Naval dockyard
at Chatham. These had been redeveloped as offices and laboratories
using private finance which is being repaid through a lease. The
assets of NRI were transferred to the University of Greenwich
(UoG) in 1996; DFID sublets the site to the UoG.
The lease includes a provision under which,
by paying a lump sum in 2014, DFID will acquire a 99-year lease
of the land and buildings at a peppercorn rent. DFID does not
have a long-term interest in retaining this, and we are therefore
looking at options for disposal. The provision in the Estimate
covers the present value of the future cash payment without reference
to possible proceeds. The likely disposal value is, for now, commercially
sensitive.
Why has the RfR1-K provision (IFFIm) increased
by £94 million this year? To what extent does the increase
represent a larger immunisation programme than previously envisaged,
an earlier start than previously envisaged, or the costs of the
existing programme escalating? Has the UK's share of the IFFIm
programme changed?
The Government has committed a total of £1.38
billion to the International Finance Facility for Immunisation
(IFFIm). The expense recorded in resource accounts—and therefore
in Estimates—is to set up a provision for an agreed schedule
of cash payments in future years. The amount of the provision
in 2006-07 and subsequent years is based on the UK share of IFFIm's
obligations to holders of bonds issued by IFFIm, not on the amount
committed or disbursed by IFFIm on programme grants. The change
in the Estimate does not therefore directly reflect any change
in the overall size or costs or of programmes to be supported
through IFFIm. The main reason for the increase is to take account
of the actual amount ($1 billion) borrowed by IFFIm in October
2006, and the UK share (65%) of donor contributions actually committed
by October; we did not have firm figures for either of these at
the time of the Main Estimate.
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