Letter to the Committee Specialist from
the Parliamentary Relations Team, Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Following my letter of 5 October in response
to your letter of 3 August, in which you requested some further
information on issues covered in the FCO's Departmental Report
2008-09, please find below the updated figures for Conflict Prevention
Pool (CPP) and Stabilisation Aid Fund (SAF) spend in 2008-09 (under
question 11).
Updated information can be found in italics against
the original response below.
Question 11 (Conflict Prevention)— The accounts
show that operating costs allocated to DSO 6 ("Preventing
and resolving conflict") fell from £619 million in 2007-08
to £599 million in 2008-09 (Vol 2, p 115). What is the reason
for this decrease, given that this is an important Government
priority? How did the composition of the Department's spending
on conflict prevention in 2008-09 differ from that of 2007-08?
Conflict prevention and resolution sit at the
heart of the FCO's policy framework, with the FCO leading on the
tri-departmental Public Service Agreement on conflict (PSA 30—"to
reduce the impact of conflict through enhanced UK and international
efforts").
DSO 6 is a streamlined strategic priority introduced
in April 2008 as part of the FCO Strategy Refresh. It replaced
Strategic Priority 3 (2007-08) but the objectives (and therefore
the figures quoted in your question) cannot be compared directly.
Activity recording data (staff time recorded against specific
objectives) differs across the two years due to these changes.
Therefore, the relatively small difference in the FCO's operating
costs between the two financial years represents a sharpening
of focus rather than any change in the importance the FCO places
on preventing and resolving conflict.
Furthermore, programme costs allocated to DSO
6 in 2008-09 actually increased to £554,736,000 from the
£471,400,000 allocated to SP3 in 2007-08 (as indicated in
Vol 2, p 143, Note 23 of the Departmental Report).
The composition of the FCO's spending on conflict
prevention changed considerably from 2007-08 to 2008-09. Our work
focussed on fewer, larger regional strategies where the UK could
make the biggest difference. For example, more funding was made
available for South Asia (mainly the Pakistan-Afghanistan border)
and the Middle East (mainly Israel-Palestine). In 2007-08, the
UK delivered its conflict prevention activity through the tri-departmental
Global Conflict Prevention Pool (GCPP), which consisted of 15
strategies, and the Africa Conflict Prevention Pool (ACPP). In
2008-09, the UK delivered its conflict prevention activity through
the tri-departmental Conflict Prevention Pool (CPP), a merger
of the GCPP and ACPP, which consisted of six regional and two
thematic strategies. Stabilisation activity in Afghanistan and
Iraq was funded through the tri-departmental Stabilisation Aid
Fund (SAF) in 2008-09. Details of allocations and final spend
against these strategies can be found in the following tables
(where available—we will provide 2008-09 figures at a later
date):
GCPP 2007-08
| Allocation (£) | Amount Spent (£)
|
| Afghanistan—Main | 18,200,000
| 18,867,147 |
| Afghanistan—Counter Narcotics | 10,000,000
| 9,852,551 |
| Balkans | 7,500,000 | 5,982,205
|
| Caribbean | 750,000 | 752,996
|
| India—Pakistan | 750,000
| 502,812 |
| Indonesia—East Timor | 500,000
| 362,730 |
| Iraq (inc MOD/DFID top-ups) | 15,732,000
| 15,730,363 |
| Latin America | 750,000 |
675,079 |
| Middle East/North Africa | 3,000,000
| 3,041,590 |
| Nepal | 2,300,000 | 2,306,466
|
| Russia/CIS | 5,100,000 |
4,713,228 |
| Security Sector Reform (SSR) | 5,907,233
| 5,757,923 |
| Small Arms and Light Weapons | 3,250,000
| 2,849,760 |
| Sri Lanka (inc DFID top-up) | 2,000,000
| 2,043,483 |
| United Nations | 7,400,000 |
5,426,312 |
GCPP Total | 83,139,233
| 78,864,644 |
ACPP Total | 64,500,000
| 60,083,208 |
CPP 2008-09 | Allocation (£)
| Amount Spent (£) |
| Africa | 62,500,000 | Figures for spend
|
| South Asia | 8,400,000 |
2009-09 not yet |
| The Balkans | 7,850,000 |
finalised |
| The Middle East and North Africa | 4,900,000
| |
| Russia/CIS | 4,470,000 |
|
| The Americas | 1,750,000 |
|
| Security and Small Arms Control | 9,400,000
| |
| International Capacity Building | 7,120,000
| |
CPP Total | £106,390,000
| |
SAF 2008-09 | Allocation (£)
| Amount Spent (£) |
Afghanistan (inc top ups of £5.7 million)
| 53,700,000 | Figures for spend
|
| Iraq | 19,300,000 | 2008-09 not yet
|
| | finalised
|
SAF Total | £73,000,000
| |
| |
|
CPP | Original Allocation
| Final Allocation* | Spend against Allocation
|
| Africa | £62.5m
| £68.53m | £68.7m
|
| South Asia | £8.4m
| £8.4m | £8.59m
|
| Balkans | £7.85m
| £8.8m | £8.42m
|
| MENA | £4.9m
| £5.9m | £5.82m
|
| Russia/CIS | 47m
| £4.47m | 7m
|
| Americas | £1.75m
| £1.75m | £1.8m
|
| SSAC | £9.4m
| £8.22m | £8.9m
|
| ICB | £7.12m
| £7.12m | £7.08m
|
| Reserve | £5.5m
| 0 | 0 |
| Total | £112m
| £113.2m | £114m
|
SAF | Original Allocation
| Final Allocation | Spend against Allocation
|
| Afghanistan | £48m |
£53.7m | £52.5m |
| Iraq | £15m | £19.3m
| £19.1m |
| Reserve | £10m | 0
| 0 |
| Total | £73m | £73m
| £71.6m |
* Final allocations are a result of reserve funding and/or money reallocated from/to other programmes.
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3 December 2009
|
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