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14 Jan 2009 : Column 832W—continued
International Development
Corporate Communications
Mr. Andrew Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what payments his Department has made to Corporate Communications in each of the last five years. [245038]
Mr. Douglas Alexander: The Department for International Development (DFID) has made the following payments to the Central Office of Information for work undertaken by its corporate communications section in the last five years:
| £ | |
| Amount (excluding VAT) | |
Departmental Consultants
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many external consultants work for his Department. [244728]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: In the 2007-08 financial year, the Department for International Development (DFID) engaged 201 external consultants centrally. This figure includes contracts with profit and non profit companies, Civil Society Organisations, universities and research institutes. It does not include consultants engaged directly by DFID Departments or overseas offices under delegated contracting authority, as to compile this information would incur disproportionate costs.
Departmental Contracts
Mr. Andrew Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what payments his Department had made on behalf of CDC to (a) LM, (b) Financial Dynamics, (c) Cubitt Consulting, (d) Bell Pottinger and (e) Merlin in each of the last five years; and what the purpose of each payment was. [244822]
Mr. Douglas Alexander: The Department for International Development has made no payments on behalf of CDC to any of the companies listed in the last five years.
Departmental Correspondence
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many (a) letters and (b) e-mails received by his Department had not been responded to as at 15 December 2008. [244709]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The Cabinet Office publishes an annual report to Parliament on the performance of Departments in replying to letters from Members and Peers. Information relating to 2008 will be published as soon as it has been collated.
In respect of e-mails received by DFID, it is not possible to provide this information without incurring disproportionate cost.
DFID also publishes information on letters and e-mails from members of the public and organisations in its Annual Report. Information relating to 2007 is available to view in section 10.12 at:
Departmental Databases
Mr. Andrew Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if he will place in the Library a copy of the list of contents of his Department's PRISM database. [245233]
Mr. Douglas Alexander: A copy of the list of contents of DFID's PRISM database will be placed in the Library.
Departmental Energy
Gordon Banks: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps his Department is taking to reduce the amount of energy it wastes. [244614]
Mr. Michael Foster:
The Government's Delivery Plan for 'Sustainable Procurement and Operations on the Government Estate', published in August 2008, provides
a full account of the initiatives departments are taking to reduce their energy waste. The Government have committed to updating the delivery plan on a six monthly basis, and the first of these updates was published on 18 December 2008.
Departmental Internet
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many (a) page hits and (b) visitors his Department's website received in 2007-08. [244729]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: Statistics for the main Department for International Development (DFID) website for 2007-08:
Page views: 5,617,604
Unique visitors: 898,012
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what the cost was of maintaining his Department's website for the 2007-08 financial year; and what the forecast cost is of maintaining websites within his responsibility in the 2008-09 financial year. [244865]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The information requested is shown in the following table:
| Website | Cost (£) | |
|
DFID main site (www.dfid.gov.uk ) | ||
Departmental Publications
Mr. Andrew Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development with reference to the answer to the hon. Member for Selby of 6 February 2007, Official Report, column 768W, if he will place in the Library a copy of the corporate communications strategy. [245031]
Mr. Michael Foster: The 2005 Strategy referred to by the hon. Member has been superseded by the September 2008 publication "Communication Matters". This is available on the DFID website, and a copy will be placed in the Library.
Departmental Recruitment
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development for what reason the targets for the recruitment of (a) women to top management posts, (b) ethnic minority staff and (c) disabled staff in his Department differ from those set for the Civil Service overall. [244907]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The Department for International Development (DFID) values diversity and is committed to ensuring that this is reflected in our recruitment and selection processes. DFID welcome applications for posts from all parts of the community. In accordance with the Civil Service Commissioners Recruitment Code selection is on merit following fair and open competition. We do not set specific targets for recruitment.
Developing Countries: Drownings
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development (1) what work his Department has undertaken to reduce deaths by drowning in the developing world; and if he will make a statement; [245250]
(2) what estimate he has made of the number of deaths by drowning in the developing world in the latest period for which figures are available. [245251]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The Department for International Development (DFID) has no specific programmes targeted to reduce the number of deaths by drowning. However, DFID makes significant investments in public health and education in developing countries, both of which will help improve accident prevention.
The UK Government do not make its own estimates of cause-specific mortality. The World Health Organisation (WHO) publishes information on cause-specific mortality for countries, regions and globally. The latest available estimates are for 2002 and show that an estimated 376,000 people drowned, making it the third leading cause of unintentional injury death globally after road traffic injuries and falls. These global burden of disease figures are an under-estimate of all drowning deaths, since they exclude drowning due to floods (cataclysms), boating and water transport. The vast majority (approximately 97 per cent.) of all drowning deaths occurred in low and middle-income countries.
Overseas Aid: Emergency Services
Mr. Andrew Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what the reasons were for the decision that search and rescue capability for disasters overseas will be provided to his Department by UK fire and rescue services; and if he will place in the Library the terms of the agreement between his Department and UK fire and rescue services on the provision of this service. [244758]
Mr. Michael Foster: The Department for International Development (DFID) needed to streamline its working arrangements with UK voluntary search and rescue groups, and place our partnership with them for humanitarian services on a similar footing to the arrangements we have with other humanitarian organisations. The voluntary groups were unable to reach agreement. However, we still needed to find a more efficient and workable arrangement and agreed with the UK Fire and Rescue Service that it would take over responsibility for organising the overseas search and rescue capability we require in disaster response, including supplementing its capacity by commissioning voluntary groups as and when required.
The terms of this agreement are set out in correspondence between DFID and the UK Fire and Rescue Service, copies of which I will place in the Library.
Mr. Andrew Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if he will list the meetings that officials from his Department have had with (a) the UK International Search and Rescue Group and (b) UK fire and rescue services on the provision of overseas search and rescue services in the last 12 months. [244759]
Mr. Michael Foster: DFID officials met the UK International Search and Rescue Group (UKISARG), with colleagues from the UK Fire and Rescue Service, on 9 and 31 January, 4 March and 6 June 2008. DFID and UK Fire and Rescue Service colleagues additionally met once in the summer of 2008 and again on 8 October and 6 November 2008.
Mr. Andrew Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what processes are in place to co-ordinate the (a) overall management and (b) operational management of overseas search and rescue services between his Department and UK fire and rescue services. [244760]
Mr. Michael Foster: The Department for International Development (DFID) and the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) have agreed that the DCLG UK Fire and Rescue Service will supply, co-ordinate and manage UK search and rescue operations if required by DFID in its overseas disaster response. The UK Fire and Rescue Service may draw on the services of UK voluntary search and rescue groups if required.
DFID retains overall lead on overseas disaster response, tasking and giving strategic direction to the UK Fire and Rescue Service for any search and rescue component.
Mr. Andrew Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if he will publish a breakdown by main budget heading of his Department's expenditure on overseas search and rescue operations for each of the past three years; and how much is expected to be spent on such operations in each of the next three years. [244761]
Mr. Michael Foster: There has been no requirement for the Department for International Development (DFID) to support overseas search and rescue operations since the Pakistan earthquake in October 2005. Should any disaster occur in the coming years requiring international assistance with search and rescue DFID will be ready to contribute assistance.
We are in the process of agreeing a multi-annual budget with the UK Fire and Rescue Service.
Overseas Aid: Wildlife Conservation
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what projects his Department funded aimed at protecting endangered species in developing countries in 2007. [245413]
Mr. Michael Foster:
The Department for International Development (DFID) recognises the importance of biodiversity conservation to its poverty reduction efforts and continues to channel significant financial support to the sector through a range of mechanisms. DFID is responsible for UK contributions to the Global Environment Facility (GEF)—the financial mechanism of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). In 2007-08 DFID provided £35 million to the GEF—of which one-third is allocated to biodiversity conservation. DFID has Partnership Programme Agreements (PPAs) with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and International
Institution of Environment and Development (IIED). In 2007-08 DFID provided £3.699 million to WWF and £1.793 million (2007-08) to IIED.
In addition to the PPAs, DFID support to organisations engaged in the protection of endangered species in 2007-08 included; £281,000 (2007-08) to the Royal Society for Protection of Birds, £142,312 (2007-08) to Bird Life International and £80,587 (2007-08) to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
Other areas of our work that contribute indirectly to endangered species protection include our advice to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)—particularly on financing conservation, and on forest and fisheries governance. We are developing a new research programme we are developing on Ecosystem Services and Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) (£30 million over five years), and have recently contributed to International Crop Diversity Trust (£10 million) and the Congo Basin Forest Fund (£60 million over three years).
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much funding his Department allocated to overseas conservation organisations in 2007. [245414]
Mr. Michael Foster: The Department for International Development (DFID) has partnership programme agreements (PPAs) with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and International Institution of Environment and Development (MED). In 2007-8 DFID provided £3.699 million to WWF and £1.793 million (2007-8) to MED.
In addition to the PPAs, DFID support to overseas conservation organisations in 2007-8 also included; £281,000 (2007-8) to the Royal Society for Protection of Birds, £142,312 (2007-8) to Bird Life International and £80,587 (2007-8) to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
Pakistan: Education
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if his Department will assist Pakistan to broaden the curriculum of madrassahs; and if he will make a statement. [245016]
Mr. Michael Foster: While support from the Department for International Development (DFID) does not specifically focus on broadening the curriculum of madrassas, our education programmes will assist Pakistan’s ambitious education reforms, which include measures to expand the national curriculum. The new curriculum will be reflected in textbooks and improved quality of teaching in both public and private schools, including madrassas. DFID support to build up the capacity within provincial education departments will also ensure better state regulation of all schools, including madrassas, to meet minimum standards of quality education.
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