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12 Oct 2009 : Column 78W—continued
Departmental Marketing
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development with reference to the answer of 15 December 2008, Official Report, column 346W, on departmental marketing, how many staff in his Department are responsible for branding activity; and what the cost of employing such staff was in 2008-09. [290213]
Mr. Michael Foster: In 2008-09 no one person had sole responsibility for branding. All employees who work on public-facing communications are responsible for representing the activity of the Department for International Development clearly and appropriately in the UK and overseas, as outlined in our Communications Strategy:
As such it is not possible to disaggregate figures for employment costs on this activity from overall budgets without incurring disproportionate cost.
Departmental Motor Vehicles
Andrew Stunell: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much his Department spent on hire vehicles in each of the last five financial years. [291609]
Mr. Michael Foster: The Department for International Development (DFID) does hold the requested information centrally and cannot provide it without incurring a disproportionate cost.
Departmental Non-Domestic Rates
Justine Greening: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many properties owned by his Department were liable for payment of (a) business rates and (b) empty property rates in each of the last five years; and what the liability in respect of each was in each such year. [290556]
Mr. Michael Foster: The Department for International Development (DFID) has only one freehold property in the United Kingdom, Abercrombie House office in East Kilbride.
The business rates bill for the last five years for this office was as follows:
| £ | |
DFID has had no liability for empty property rates over this period.
Departmental Paternity Leave
Justine Greening: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many staff took paternity leave from his Department in each of the last five years; and what the average duration of such leave has been. [290554]
Mr. Michael Foster: The number of home civil servants who took paternity leave in the last five years is as follows:
| Number | |
The majority of staff took their full entitlement of 10 days. There is no centrally held record for staff appointed in country.
Departmental Public Expenditure
Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development which Minister in his Department has been assigned responsibility for overseeing the delivery of value for money in his Department; whether his Department has established a public sector reform team to implement service reforms; and if he will make a statement. [289737]
Mr. Michael Foster: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has assigned me with the responsibility for overseeing delivery of value for money within the Department.
The Department is implementing a range of reforms to ensure it achieves the maximum development impact for each pound spent. Teams are established as required to deliver these reforms.
Departmental Recruitment
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what data his Department holds on the level of diversity in its recruitment of employees in each of the last three years. [290508]
Mr. Michael Foster: The Department for International Development (DFID) keeps volunteered diversity recruitment data on age, disability, ethnicity and gender.
DFID's Annual Diversity Report and Data Analysis can be found at:
Departmental Recycling
Stewart Hosie: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what proportion of his Department's waste was recycled in the latest period for which figures are available. [289669]
Mr. Michael Foster: The proportion of waste from the Department of International Development's UK offices which was recycled in 2008-09 was 76.8 per cent.
Departmental Responsibilities
Mr. Andrew Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if he will (a) place in the Library and (b) publish on his Department's website a copy of each (i) project document, (ii) logframe and (iii) evaluation report relating to each project listed on his Department's website's project information database. [292156]
Mr. Michael Foster:
Following the publication of summary project information on our website in September, we are working on arrangements and a timetable for publishing further details of our projects. In doing so, we need to balance our commitment to transparency
with the need to protect sensitive information, and the cost and practicality of publishing information in a usable format.
Departmental Sick Leave
Justine Greening: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many sick days were taken by staff of his Department in the last five years; and what the cost to the public purse of such absences was. [290551]
Mr. Michael Foster: In 2008, there were 11,487 days lost to sickness absence in the Department for International Development (DFID).
Prior to 2008, the Cabinet Office published previous annual sickness absence reports for the Civil Service (from 2003-2007). These are available online at:
Costs of sickness absence are not held centrally and without incurring disproportionate cost it is not possible to provide an accurate figure for the cost of sick absence over the last five years.
Departmental Training
John Mason: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many external training courses were attended by staff of his Department in the last 12 months; and what the cost was of each course. [289603]
Mr. Michael Foster: It is not possible, without incurring disproportionate costs, to provide details on how external training courses were attended by staff in the Department for International Development (DFID) and what the cost was of each course.
Sub-departments and overseas offices within DFID are responsible for arranging and financing staff training. Information on the amount spent on training courses is not held centrally.
Developing Countries: Disabled
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what assessment his Department has made of the effects of its spending on education in developing countries on the education of disabled children in those countries. [289251]
Mr. Michael Foster: The Department for International Development (DFID) is committed to the integration of disability policy and practice as set out in DFID's policy "Reducing Poverty by Tackling Social Exclusion" (2005). The practice paper, "Working on Disability in Country Programmes" (2007), sets out DFID's approach and commitments on disability which is main-streamed across all sectors, including education. These are available in the Library of the House and on the DFID website:
DFID's country-led approach helps support partner countries' plans, policies and programmes to ensure that children, including those with disabilities, benefit from quality education. This holistic approach includes working with partners to ensure that access to education by children with special needs is addressed.
The UK is spending £8.5 billion over the period 2006-07 to 2015-16 in support of education in developing countries. DFID's new White Paper "Eliminating World Poverty: Building our Common Future" announced that a new Education Strategy will be launched. A public consultation process will be held up to end October, which will enable us to review how we support social inclusion issues and receive views from interested parties.
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what account his Department takes of the twin-track approach to disability set out in his Department's paper, "Disability, poverty and development", in the development of its work on education and disability. [289255]
Mr. Michael Foster: The Department for International Development (DFID) is implementing the "twin-track" approach on its work on education and disability in the following ways:
The "How to note" on Working on Disability in Country Programmes is being disseminated to DFID programmes and to Civil Society partners. The note is available at:
DFID requires all 22 priority countries to carry out a Country Governance Analysis (CGA) as part of the planning and design of new country strategies. This analysis includes an assessment of gender inequalities and of excluded groups, their interests and needs. To date, partner governments in Uganda and Ethiopia have explicitly targeted disabled children in their national strategies for education.
DFID supports civil society in shaping the design of national education systems and services, so that the interests of disabled people and other excluded groups are reflected in national planning processes. DFID also supports capacity building for disabled people's organisations, so that they can engage with government and others on the design of essential service provision.
DFID supports the global Disability Rights Fund (with a current contribution of £868,000 over 18 months) which provides grants to work with and help empower disabled people.
Starting in 2009-10, DFID will include disabled people when designing evaluation systems and other tools for building the evidence of good practice in reducing poverty, including through education.
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much of his Department's expenditure on education was incurred in relation to (a) projects directly targeting disabled children and (b) broader projects on education with disability mainstreamed in (i) Nigeria, (ii) Tanzania, (iii) India and (iv) Pakistan in the most recent year for which figures are available. [289258]
Mr. Michael Foster: The UK is spending £8.5 billion over the period 2006-07 to 2015-16 in support of education in developing countries. As the bulk of our support and engagement is provided through direct budget support and sector wide approaches, we are unable to put a specific global figure on the amount of money spent directly on disabled children. However, we encourage partner governments to ensure that their monitoring mechanisms can track the effects of national education sector spending on the most vulnerable children, including disabled children.
The estimated spend on projects where disability is either directly targeted or mainstreamed in the four countries listed is:
India-The DFID supported Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), National Education for All Programme, has helped reach over 1 million children with special needs since 2005-06. The programme has spent over £78 million of which it is estimated approximately £2.3 million supported special needs children.
Nigeria-DFID provides support to a set of State level sector programmes including education sector support through the Education Sector Support Programme. DFID Nigeria is increasing its support from £100 million in 2008-09 to £140 million in 2010-11. The increased allocation is being used to expand support to selected partner states for health and education over the next three years.
Pakistan-We do not have any ongoing or pipeline programmes that specifically target the disabled. Our support is mainly provided through sector budgets in support of provincial plans, within which issues relating to provision for disabled children is made.
Tanzania-DFID's support in Tanzania is aligned with the Government of Tanzania National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty. In 2007-08 DFID provided £105 million as budget support of which over £26 million went to the education sector. Of this, we estimate that more than £66,000 went on school places for disabled children.
Developing Countries: Economic Situation
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what recent assessment he has made of the effects of reductions in levels of global trade on the gross domestic product of (a) small vulnerable economies, (b) least developed countries and (c) small island states. [289859]
Mr. Thomas: Since the onset of the global financial crisis, the Department for International Development (DFID) has been closely tracking its impact on developing countries. The crisis and the subsequent reductions in global trade have had a significant effect on developing countries and a reduction in projected growth rates is predicted across the board. Our initial assessments have indicated that commodity-exporting countries with non-diversified economies have seen the greatest impact.
A dedicated team has been set up to co-ordinate and initiate work across the Department to assess trade-related and other impacts of the global slowdown on low-income countries. More broadly DFID is in close contact with colleagues across Whitehall and overseas, in other Governments, the international financial institutions, and research institutions to analyse impacts of the crisis and plan further effective responses. DFID has commissioned several pieces of research examining trade-related impacts which have been made publicly available:
"The implication of the global financial crisis for developing countries' export volumes and values"
http://www.odi.org.uk/resources/details.asp?id=3410&;title= global-financial-crisis-developing-countries-export-volumes-trade
"Individual Country Reports of 10 selected Low Income Countries"
http://www.odi.org.uk/projects/details.asp?id=1041&;title= global-financial-crisis-developing-countries
"Assessing the Impact of the Global Financial Crisis on World Prices and Trade in Developing Countries"
"Are Exporters in Africa Facing Reduced Availability of Trade Finance?"
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