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DR
364: Letter to the Committee Specialist from Julian Smith, Head of
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 2008/09 not yet finalised.
|
|
South Asia
|
8,400,000
|
|
The Balkans
|
7,850,000
|
|
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 £5.7m)
|
53,700,000
|
Figures
for spend 2008/09 not yet finalised.
|
|
Iraq
|
19,300,000
|
|
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
|
£4.47m
|
£4.47m
|
£4.7m
|
|
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.
3 December 2009
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