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20 Apr 2009 : Column 497W—continued
We have budgeted for £456 million for assessed costs in 2009-10. As most of these costs are yet to be agreed in the relevant international forum, we do not yet have reliable estimates for individual missions.
Mr. Moore: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to the Written Ministerial Statement of 25 March 2009, Official Report, columns 17-19WS, on conflict resources 2009-10, what estimate has been made of the effect on the costs to the Government of its commitments to international institutions caused by the fall in the value of sterling; and if he will make a statement. [267722]
Bill Rammell: The projected increase in the UK’s assessed peacekeeping contributions in 2009-10 is the result of both an increase in peacekeeping activity international and the fall in the value of sterling against the US dollar and the euro.
The impact of exchange rate changes in financial year 2008-09 has been partly offset by the effects of forward purchasing our foreign currency requirement.
We have earmarked £456 million for assessed costs in 2009-10. However, this remains a projection as UN peacekeeping costs are still to be negotiated by the UN General Assembly for 2009-10, and future UN peacekeeping activity remains subject to decisions by the UN Security Council. We cannot provide an accurate estimate of the additional costs caused by the fall in the value of sterling rather than through the expansion of international peacekeeping missions until the budgets for each of the individual missions are agreed and payments made.
Mr. Moore: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to the Written Ministerial Statement of 25 March 2009, Official Report, columns 17-19WS, on conflict resources 2009-10, what proportion of the additional £71 million for conflict prevention, stabilisation and discretionary funding will be met by (a) his Department, (b) the Department for International Development and (c) the Ministry of Defence; and if he will make a statement. [267723]
Bill Rammell: Of the additional £71 million to be provided by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), Ministry of Defence (MOD) and Department for International Development (DFID) for discretionary conflict activity (conflict prevention, stabilisation and peacekeeping), £15 million (21 per cent.) has been provided by the FCO, £22.5 million (32 per cent.) by the MOD and £33.5 million (47 per cent.) by DFID.
Mr. Hague: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to the Written Ministerial Statement of 25 March 2009, Official Report, columns 17-19WS, on conflict resources 2009-10, what the allocation for South Asia and Afghanistan was before the revision announced in the Statement. [267869]
David Miliband: The final budgets contained within the written ministerial statement are the original and only allocation figures for South Asia and Afghanistan for financial year 2009-10.
South Asia and Afghanistan received £56.4 million in 2008-09 and has been allocated £61.3 million for 2009-10.
Mr. Hague:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to the written ministerial statement of 25 March 2009, Official Report, columns 17-19WS, on conflict resources 2009-10, what proportion of the additional £71 million to be
provided for peacekeeping activities by his Department, the Department for International Development and the Ministry of Defence will be drawn from his Department's budget. [267870]
David Miliband: Of the additional £71 million to be provided by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), Ministry of Defence (MOD) and Department for International Development (DfID) for discretionary conflict activity (conflict prevention, stabilisation and peacekeeping), £15 million (21 per cent.) has been provided by the FCO, £22.5 million (32 per cent.) by the MOD and £33.5 million (47 per cent.) by DflD.
Departmental Carbon Emissions
Greg Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs for how long his Department has followed the Carbon Trust’s Carbon Management programme. [269280]
Caroline Flint: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has been following the Carbon Trust’s Carbon Management Programme since April 2006.
Departmental Computers
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many laptop computers have been provided to (a) Ministers, (b) special advisers and (c) civil servants in his Department in each year since 2005; and at what cost. [268266]
Gillian Merron: As the Foreign and Commonwealth Office devolves budget responsibility for most purchases of this type to individual directorates, there is no central record of the information requested. Consequently a full answer could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
However, a central pool of laptops is maintained for work involving sensitive information. There are currently approximately 450 machines available for use by staff on a rental basis. The cost of providing this service was approximately £650,000 in the financial year 2008-09.
Departmental Conferences
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to the Answer of 12 March 2009, Official Report, columns 626-27W, on economic situation, what expenditure was incurred under what budgetary headings his Department incurred on its seminar on Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Africa Economic Outlook held in June 2008. [268174]
Gillian Merron: The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Africa Economic Outlook seminar helps inform Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) staff about economic developments in Africa and is also a valuable part of the UK’s extensive links with the OECD.
The total cost of the seminar was £123.74, to provide refreshments for the participants and guest speakers from the OECD’s Development Centre. This was met from the FCO’s Global Economy Group’s administrative budget.
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to the Answer of 12 March 2009, Official Report, columns 626-27W, on the economic situation, what expenditure under what budgetary headings was incurred by his Department in relation to its Global Economy Group internal seminar held in October 2008. [268175]
Caroline Flint: The lunchtime seminar on risks facing emerging market economies in the financial crisis cost £270.36. All costs were associated with catering provided by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s standard internal caterers.
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to the Answer of 12 March 2009, Official Report, columns 626-27W, on the economic situation, what expenditure under what budgetary headings was incurred by his Department in relation to its bi-annual conference for its economic officers held in December 2008. [268176]
Gillian Merron: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) Economic Officers conference is held bi-annually.
The budget for this year’s conference was set at £35,000 with 120 officials attending. The actual spend as of 30 March 2009 was £23,238 and final spend is expected to be within the budget.
Two thirds of the budget for the conference was to provide a contribution to officials’ airfares. The remainder was allocated to catering and audio equipment hire.
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to the Answer of 12 March 2009, Official Report, columns 626-27W, on the economic situation, what the expenditure under what budgetary headings was incurred by his Department in relation to its seminar on Global economics crisis: challenges and opportunities for Europe held in Budapest in February. [268177]
Gillian Merron: The Department incurred a total expenditure of £1,464 for this seminar under the following budgetary headings:
| £ | |
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to the answer of 12 March 2009, Official Report, columns 626-7W, on the economic situation, what expenditure under what budgetary headings was incurred by his Department in relation to its conference for climate and energy attachés held on 26 and 27 February 2009. [268178]
Caroline Flint:
The conference held on 26 to 27 February 2009 succeeded in allowing our Diplomats based throughout the world to engage directly with policy makers in Whitehall, non-governmental organisations
and key business stakeholders so as to improve their effectiveness in representing the UK overseas. Over 150 people attended this event which is held annually. Final costs are contingent on claims for subsistence some of which are yet to be received. But anticipated final costs break down as follows:
| Anticipated final costs (£) | |
|
Conference facilities including the hire of audio equipment and catering | |
Costs are incurred under the administration budget line for the global and economic issues directorate at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Departmental Energy
Greg Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1) what steps have been taken by (a) his Department and (b) its agencies to improve the thermal efficiency of their buildings in the last 12 months; [266758]
(2) what recent progress his Department has made towards the target of increasing its energy efficiency per square metre of its Estate by 15 per cent. by 2010, relative to 1999-2000 levels; and if he will make a statement. [266880]
Gillian Merron: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has draught-proofed the windows in our London offices and reduced office heating in the UK from approximately 24°C to a target of 21°C this winter. We are currently undertaking a thermal survey of our UK estate in order to identify further opportunities to reduce heat loss.
In June 2008 we constructed a new information communications technology building at Hanslope Park in Buckinghamshire. This building is a high thermal mass structure, with exposed concrete ceilings that absorb at night the heat generated by the building during the day and selected elevations have solar shading to minimise the heat gain from the sun. The building also contains passive cooling systems using chilled ceiling beams. In winter the building is heated using waste heat recovered by heat exchangers from the data halls.
This building won two Datacentre Leaders Awards for Innovation in 2008. This new building partially replaces three thermally inefficient pre-fabricated buildings which have been decommissioned; a further such building will be decommissioned by the end of 2011.
At Wilton Park measures including repairing window frames, installing thermostatic temperature control valves to radiators and new boiler controls have been taken to improve thermal efficiency.
Greg Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how much (a) electricity, (b) gas and (c) other fuel was used by (i) his Department and (ii) each of its agencies in each of the last 10 years. [267334]
Gillian Merron: Information on the worldwide use of electricity, gas and other fuels by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and its agencies in each of the last 10 years is not held centrally and it would not be possible to provide this information without incurring disproportionate cost.
The following table provides all the available data for the UK FCO estate and Wilton Park. FCO services energy usage cannot be extracted from the remainder of the UK FCO estate without incurring disproportionate cost.
| 1999-2000 | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | |
| Notes: 1. Heating for the bulk of the London Estate is supplied by the Whitehall district heating system. 2. Where the value is stated as n/k, the information is not currently available in this format and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. 3. Where the value is stated as n/a, which refers to woodchip at Wilton Park, this refers to a new facility introduced in 2007-08. | |||||||||
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