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To offset the impact on UK conflict prevention, stabilisation and discretionary peacekeeping activity, the Department for International Development (DFID), Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and Ministry of Defence (MOD) will provide an additional £71 million from Departmental budgets
We will therefore have £171 million from which all discretionary conflict prevention, stabilisation and peacekeeping activity will be funded. There will be five strategies: the SAF Afghanistan and CPP South Asia programmes will be merged; so too the SAF Iraq and CPP Middle East and North Africa programmes. A new wider Europe programme will fund activity in Russia/Commonwealth of Independent States and the Balkans (both currently individual programmes). The Africa programme will continue. A separate programme will be earmarked for thematic work, including support to international institutions to maintain our influence in international missions and security sector reform. The strategies will be managed tri-departmentally as is the case now.
Although DFID, the FCO and MOD are providing significant additional resources we are still unable to sustain funding levels to all regions. We have therefore undertaken an exercise to prioritise UK discretionary conflict expenditure more tightly on countries where the risk and impact of conflict is greatest. An outline of the revised programmes is provided below.
The total allocation for South Asia, including Afghanistan, will now be £61.3 million. This will allow us fully to sustain current levels of conflict related activity in Afghanistan, reflecting the very high priority which we attach to stabilisation in that country. A large proportion of the available resources will be spent on stabilisation programmes in Helmand, including on capacity building of the provincial institutions, communications with the Afghan people, counter narcotics and the rule of law. The priority given to this region sees a continuation of current levels of financial support for India/Pakistan issues, Sri Lanka and Nepal and an increase in support for work on the Afghanistan/Pakistan border.
In Africa, under a revised programme totalling £43 million, we will continue to give significant resources to both peacekeeping and conflict prevention work in countries such as Sudan, Somalia and the DRC. The balance of resources will necessarily shift away from West and Southern Africa towards East Africa and the Horn in line with PSA 30 with a few exceptions.
In Wider Europe, the total allocation will now be £33 million. This will allow us to maintain our national contribution to United Nations Forces in Africa (UNFICYP), the UN peacekeeping operation in Cyprus, in 2009-10. NATO has informed us that the current UK contribution to KFOR, the NATO peacekeeping force in Kosovo, is no longer required and we will therefore make plans to draw this down. We will fund a reduced level of commitment to EU and OSCE operations in the Balkans and the Caucasus, and continue to fund conflict prevention work in the Balkans.
In the Middle East, we will prioritise work in Iraq, Israel/Palestine and Lebanon within a revised programme of £18 million. A majority of the resource available will support stabilisation activity in Iraq. The allocation will also allow us to continue to support the emerging conflict prevention programme in Yemen.
The £6.5 million thematic programme including support for international organisations will provide resources for a security sector reform advisory capacity, a peacekeeping training capacity, defence education within priority countries, and support for the United Nations’ Rule of Law Unit, Department of Peacekeeping Operations and Peacebuilding Support Office.
The need to prioritise within the limited resources available means that we have taken a decision to discontinue funding the CPP programme in Latin America. We will maintain the UK’s significant contribution in the region on such issues as human rights and democracy; countering the illegal drugs trade; and climate change. Our embassies will also continue to work alongside international partners including the UN on conflict issues.
Within the £171 million we will retain a small central reserve to act primarily as a buffer against fluctuations in the exchange rate and increases in assessed peacekeeping or other conflict related costs. The likely cost of the assessed contributions will be reviewed regularly, so that any likely underspend or overspend against the upper limit of £456 can be identified and addressed.
This process has involved a series of difficult decisions and we will not be able to fund all areas of activity to the same level as in previous years. However, we are confident that the rigorous approach to prioritisation which has been taken, as well as the additional £71 million allocated by Departments, should allow us to maintain our significant contribution to international peacekeeping, and to fund essential conflict prevention and stabilisation activity in priority regions.
Justice
Oakhill Secure Training Centre
The Minister of State, Ministry of Justice (Mr. David Hanson):
In my written ministerial statement of 14 May 2008, Official Report, column 61WS, I informed the House that the Youth Justice Board had decided to
issue rectification notices to STC Milton Keynes Limited, the contractor responsible for the delivery of services at Oakhill secure training centre.
My right hon. Friend the Minister of State for Children, Young People and Families and I wish to inform the House that the Youth Justice Board has decided to withdraw the rectification notices imposed on STC Milton Keynes Limited. The contractor has addressed all of the deficiencies which had been identified and the centre is now able to operate at full capacity.
Ofsted carried out an inspection of the centre in December 2008 and their report which was published yesterday gave the centre an overall quality rating of “satisfactory”.
The next step is for the contractor to consolidate the positive changes and build on the improvements made to date. The Youth Justice Board will continue to monitor the service being delivered at the centre and will take the necessary actions to resolve any problems identified and drive forward improvements.
Law of Bribery
The Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor (Mr. Jack Straw): In my role as the Government’s anti-corruption champion I am pleased to inform the House that I have today laid before Parliament the draft Bribery Bill for pre-legislative scrutiny (“Bribery - Draft Legislation” Cm 7570). This is in accordance with the Government’s Legislative Programme as set out in the written statement by my right hon. and learned Friend the Leader of the House of Commons on 4 December 2008, Official Report, column 12WS.
The Bill describes a modern, clear and consolidated law that will support our commitment to high ethical standards generally and will equip our courts and prosecutors to deal effectively with bribery of all kinds whether it occurs at home or abroad. I believe these provisions strike the right balance between clarity and detail, so as to allow for both legal certainty and the effective differentiation between bribery and the legitimate giving and receiving of advantages.
Our current criminal law of bribery is old and anachronistic and can be difficult for prosecutors, courts and members of the public. Statutory law is fragmented and dates back to around the turn of the 20th century. It is unconsolidated, resulting in inconsistencies of language and concepts between the various provisions and one or two small but potentially significant gaps in the law. The scope of the common law offence is unclear, adding to inconsistency and overall complexity. These issues have been noted at home and abroad, most notably by the OECD Bribery Working Group. It is clear that, from a purely legal perspective, the case for reform is strong.
This is, however, much more than a desire for an orderly statute book. While the United Kingdom is recognised as one of the least corrupt countries in the world we do not underestimate the threat posed by bribery. If it is not kept in check bribery can destroy the integrity, accountability and honesty that underpin ethical standards in public and commercial life. By its very nature insidious and difficult to root out, bribery worldwide
weakens democracy, impedes sustainable development and can undermine respect for human rights by supporting corrupt regimes.
As advances in technology and communication enable ever more sophisticated means of committing and concealing crimes, we must ensure that our law provides our courts and prosecutors with the tools they need to combat such crime effectively. Over the years it has become clear that a law that has narrow national focus will not fulfil this role. The global economy is a reality. Modernisation of the law is therefore a priority, not only to deal effectively with those who offer or accept bribes in our business or public sectors, but also to reinforce transparency and accountability in our international business transactions.
Law reform is one of the key elements of the UK’s strategy against foreign bribery, which I am co-coordinating in my role as Government anti-corruption champion as announced in my statement of 2 October 2008. Concerted multilateral action is essential to tackle the global impact of bribery and related issues such as money laundering. Co-operation with our international partners is producing significant progress in areas such as the tracing, recovery and repatriation of money laundered misappropriated assets. In addition we are supporting effective implementation of the UN Convention against corruption, the OECD Bribery Convention and the Council of Europe’s Criminal Law Convention on Corruption.
The Bill builds on the Law Commission proposals set out in its report “Reforming Bribery” in November 2008. I would like to express my gratitude to the Law Commission for its excellent report. The Bill’s principal provisions create two general offences; one dealing with the giving, promising, and offering of a bribe and the other with agreeing to receive or acceptance of a bribe. It provides a new discrete offence of bribery of a foreign public official and a new corporate liability offence of negligently failing to prevent bribery. The detail of these and the other remaining provisions of the Bill are explained in full in the explanatory notes published along side the Bill. My officials have shared details of our proposed legislation with colleagues in Scotland. It will be for the Scottish Ministers to consider whether any similar changes will be necessary to Scots law.
Transport
EU Transport Council
The Secretary of State for Transport (Mr. Geoffrey Hoon): I will attend the first Transport Council of the Czech presidency which will take place in Brussels on 30 March.
There will be a progress report and policy debate on the latest situation on the proposed amendment to Directive 1999/62/EC on the charging of heavy goods vehicles for the use of certain infrastructures—the “Eurovignette directive”. We support the principle of the “polluter pays” and therefore the broad aims of the directive. However, we have concerns with some of the proposals, including a requirement to introduce earmarking.
The Council will aim to reach a general approach on a proposed amendment to the directive on the organisation of working time in road transport. The amending directive aims to permanently exclude the genuinely self-employed
from the scope of the working time rules for mobile workers and provide additional flexibility to industry on night work limits. I expect to be able to agree to the general approach.
Following the recent Commission Communication “Action Plan for the deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems in Europe”, the Council will be asked to adopt conclusions. The Government support the objectives of the ITS action plan to reduce congestion, tackle environmental issues, provide reliable travel information and improve safety. We welcome the recognition in the conclusions of the contribution that technology can make to meet those objectives.
Within the SESAR project for Single Sky implementation, the Commission has recently produced a master plan for air traffic management in Europe. The Council will be asked to adopt a decision endorsing the master plan and a Council resolution on it. The UK has been a firm supporter of the SESAR project from the outset. We recognise the contribution the project can make to improvement of the European air traffic management system, while helping to mitigate the impacts of aviation on the environment. In order for the project to begin its second phase (development), we should endorse this resolution and request the SESAR joint undertaking to complete membership agreements with industry at the earliest possible opportunity.
Under AOB, the presidency will report on progress of the legislative proposals of the Single European Sky (SES) package. It is expected that the European Parliament in plenary session will by then have voted on these proposals. The first of them is a regulation amending the four regulations adopted in 2004 which established the Single European Sky. The amending regulation aims to improve the efficiency of air traffic management (ATM) across the EU by introducing targets that ensure all member states contribute to an overall improvement in the performance of the ATM system. The second is an amending regulation extending the responsibilities of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to the safety of aerodromes, air traffic management and air navigation services. The UK has been a firm supporter of the Single European Sky since its inception in 2004. We are content with progress in negotiations and look forward to these proposals being adopted as soon as possible.
Finally in aviation, the presidency will seek political endorsement for a future Council decision to sign a comprehensive air transport agreement with Canada. The UK is supportive of this agreement, which would deliver the phased opening of aviation markets and investment liberalisation for EU and Canadian carriers, as well as other commercial freedoms and improved regulatory co-operation.
In maritime transport, there will be a progress report and policy debate on a draft regulation on the rights of passengers when travelling by sea and inland waterway. We support the aim of the regulation, following provisions already agreed for other transport modes, and we will continue to work closely with the Commission and member states on the details.
Also in maritime transport, the Council will be asked to adopt conclusions arising from two recent Commission Communications. The first, “strategic goals and recommendations for the EU’s maritime transport policy until 2018”, has as its aims, acceptable to us in principle,
the promotion of European shipping and related industries, which are safe, secure and environmentally friendly, while remaining efficient, adaptable and globally competitive. The second Communication is an action plan with a view to establishing “a European maritime space without barriers”. This is a concept which we can support in principle. It is designed to extend the community’s internal market by simplifying administrative procedures for intra-EU maritime transport, particularly short sea shipping, in order to improve the efficiency and competitiveness of this sector, as well as to deliver environmental benefits. I expect to be able to agree to both sets of conclusions.
Under AOB, the Council will report on the draft regulation establishing the second “Marco Polo” programme, following recent negotiations with the
European Parliament. The Marco Polo programme provides community financial assistance to improve the environmental performance of the freight transport system. This proposal intends to stimulate more applications for funding by increasing participation by small enterprises, simplifying administrative procedures, increasing funding intensities and redefining and lowering the eligibility thresholds for project proposals. The Government believe that these amendments should allow the Marco Polo II programme to fully deploy its potential, so we strongly support the proposed revision.
Also under AOB the Commission will report on the Galileo satellite navigation programme and on its recent proposal for an amending regulation on airport slot allocation.
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