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16 July 2009 : Column 675W—continued
Developing Countries: Job Creation
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development pursuant to the oral statement of 6 July 2009, Official Report, columns 701-4, on Building Our Common Future, which five fragile countries will receive his Department's new bilateral aid for job creation by 2013. [285914]
Mr. Michael Foster: The Department for International Development's planned new programme of work to expand economic opportunities by creating jobs in fragile states will initially target Nigeria, Afghanistan, Nepal, Yemen and Ethiopia. Through our work in these five countries, we expect to create a maximum of 1.25 million jobs, which will benefit up to 7.5 million people in total over the next five years.
Developing Countries: Overseas Aid
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what grants his Department has made available to UK-based charities for projects to assist fragile states in the last 12 months. [286077]
Mr. Michael Foster: Centrally-managed Department for International Development grants available to UK-based charities for projects to assist fragile states are:
The Civil Society Challenge Fund (CSCF)-£16.7 million of the fund covers projects in 15 fragile states with 31 UK-based agencies.
Governance and Transparency Fund (GTF)-£25.2 million of the fund covers projects in 19 fragile states with 18 UK-based agencies.
Partnership Programme Arrangements (PPAs)-this is unrestricted funding, covering the period 2008-2011 at £110 million a year with 26 UK-based agencies, many of which operate in fragile states.
Conflict, Humanitarian and Security Fund (CHSF)-£28.8 million of these grants provide core funding to seven UK-based agencies, all of which operate in fragile states.
DFID country offices in fragile states will also have made funds available to UK-based charities. It would require disproportionate effort to identify and list all such grants.
Global Partnership for Agriculture Food Security and Nutrition
Tony Baldry: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development who will administer the new global partnership for agriculture food security and nutrition; what the UK's percentage contribution will be to the budget of the Partnership; and what the UK's cash contribution to the partnership will be in each of the next two financial years. [285397]
Mr. Thomas: Discussions are still on-going on administrative arrangements for the global partnership process. Options for staffing, funding needs, and objectives will be assessed. We envisage a fairly light administrative structure, providing primarily secretariat-type functions. A decision on longer-term support by the Department for International Development will be taken in due course.
Sierra Leone: Overseas Aid
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if he will increase the support provided by his Department for the development of democratic institutions and politicians in Sierra Leone; and if he will make a statement. [283854]
Mr. Thomas: The Department for International Development (DFID) is committed to supporting further the development of democratic institutions and politicians in Sierra Leone.
To this end DFID has, for example, recently begun work to design a project of support to the 2012 elections in Sierra Leone, involving Sierra Leone's electoral management bodies, potential parliamentary candidates and civil society.
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development which non-governmental organisations (NGOs) receive support from his Department (a) directly and (b) indirectly via the (i) EU and (ii) the United Nations for work in Sierra Leone; what support each such organisation received in (A) cash and (B) kind in 2008-09; for how long each such organisation has been supported by his Department; what projects in Sierra Leone have been supported by such NGOs with funds from his Department; what steps his Department takes to monitor effectiveness of such spending; and if he will make a statement. [283862]
Mr. Thomas:
The Department for International Development's support for NGO's in Sierra Leone is set out in the following table. This provides information about the amount of assistance received in 2008-09; the projects funded; and the duration of the projects. DFID has supported NGOs for work in Sierra Leone since the
end of the conflict in 2002. DFID has not funded the EU or UN to work with NGOs in Sierra Leone from its bilateral budget.
DFID monitors closely and actively the effectiveness of all its spending, including that of support to NGOs. DFID staff based in Sierra Leone are in regular contact with project partners, and NGOs and others responsible for project implementation are required to submit regular reports on progress. It is a requirement to hold detailed annual reviews of each project.
Development Aid
Tony Baldry: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what estimate he has made of the growth rate that would need to be sustained in sub-Saharan Africa if that region is to meet the Millennium Development goals by 2015. [285394]
Mr. Michael Foster:
Developing countries need sustained economic growth to meet many of the millennium development goals, but growth has a particularly important part to play in helping to achieve the MDG 1 targets,
which are: to halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportions of people who live on less than a dollar a day and who suffer from hunger. Economic growth rates of at least 6 per cent. would need to be sustained in order to do this.
Justice
Compensation: Local Government
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether his Department has identified a compensation culture within local government. [285257]
Mr. Malik: I have been asked to reply.
The independent review into redress presented its findings on 17 June 2009. The review was not specifically asked to look at the issue of any compensation culture within local government. The review team did commission some focus groups with customers which found that most people, when making complaints about a public service, want a meaningful apology, an acknowledgement of what had gone wrong and a correction of the problem; financial compensation was a low motivator for people seeking redress.
The Department commissioned the review following a commitment made in the Empowerment White Paper. This independent review was chaired by David Cook (the chief executive officer of Kettering borough council) and looked at how local authorities can not only improve how they deal with complaints but how they can get it right first time. The review focused on the more transactional services provided by local authorities, for example refuse collection, and did not focus on specific redress systems currently in place in local authorities across England.
Debt Collection
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the answer of 24 April 2009, Official Report, column 958W, on debt collection, whether HM Courts Service plans to extend the guidance to county courts in the south-east to other Court Service areas. [286076]
Bridget Prentice: Her Majesty's Courts Service is currently evaluating the scheme in the county courts in the south east of taking payments by credit and debit cards, including the guidance. I am awaiting the results of the evaluation and the recommendations on the way forward.
Departmental Manpower
Jo Swinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what percentage of employees in his Department are (a) women and (b) men; and what the average hourly pay of his Department's (i) male employees and (ii) female employees was in the latest period for which figures are available. [287123]
Mr. Straw: The percentage breakdown by gender in MOJ (excluding the National Offender Management Service) for staff below the SCS is (a) 68.43 per cent. female and (b) 31.57 per cent. male.
Based on data at 1 August 2008, the average hourly pay of these male and female employees, calculated on basic pay only, is:
| £ | ||
| Male | Female | |
National Offender Management Service (NOMS)
The percentage breakdown by gender of the work force directly employed by NOMS, excluding SCS, is (a) 36 per cent. female and (b) 64 per cent. male.
Based on data for June 2009, the average hourly pay of male and female employees in NOMS, calculated on basic pay only is:
(i) £12.72 for male employees;
(ii) £11.33 for female employees.
The percentage breakdown by gender for staff in the SCS (includes both MOJ and NOMS) is (a) 36 per cent. female and (b) 64 per cent. male.
Legal Aid Scheme
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice with reference to the answer of 20 February 2008 to the hon. Member for Middlesbrough, South and East Cleveland, Official Report, column 779W, on the legal aid scheme, what proportion of the population of England and Wales was eligible for civil legal aid in 2008. [286515]
Bridget Prentice: Civil legal aid covers a number of different areas of civil and family justice, and the extent to which applicants' financial circumstances are taken into account in granting legal aid varies considerably across these areas. It is therefore not possible to give figures for the number of people eligible for civil legal aid as a whole. However, some estimates of the likely number that would be eligible are available.
The estimated proportion of the population of England and Wales who were eligible for civil legal aid, for categories in which financial circumstances were taken into account, was 29 per cent. in 2007. We do not have a figure for 2008. In 2009, we estimate that the figure for categories in which financial circumstances are taken into account is 36 per cent.. This increase in the eligible proportion of the population is likely to be due to the effects of the recession plus the 5 per cent. increase in the civil legal aid financial eligibility limits in April 2009. In 2007-08 civil legal aid helped over 1 million people with their civil and family legal problems.
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