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29 Jun 2010 : Column 524W—continued
DFID does not support abortion as a method of family planning. We believe the best way to eliminate unsafe abortion is to provide access to family planning information, services and supplies and to ensure that women have more control over the circumstances in which they have sex. In countries where abortion is legal, DFID will support programmes that make abortion safe and accessible. In countries where it is illegal and women are dying due to unsafe abortion, DFID will help make the consequences of unsafe abortion more widely understood and will consider supporting processes of legal and policy reform.
Health Services
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development on what (a) projects, (b) programmes and (c) other initiatives he expects the £6 billion his Department has allocated to global health to be spent. [4907]
Mr Andrew Mitchell: Over the coming months the Department for International Development (DFID) will review all major spending areas. I have commissioned a review of DFID bilateral and multilateral aid programmes to determine how we can achieve better value for money for the taxpayer and accelerate progress towards the Millennium Development Goals.
The reviews will consider how UK aid can help expand access to basic services, including clean water, sanitation, and health care, and how DFID can accelerate work on key priorities of malaria and maternal mortality. Allocation of funding to health will be determined as part of these reviews.
Iraq: Overseas Aid
Mr Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what projects in Iraq are being funded by his Department; what the budget of each such project is; and if he will make a statement. [4013]
Mr Andrew Mitchell: Details of projects funded by the Department for International Development (DFID) in Iraq are provided in the following table.
The tri-departmental Conflict Pool's Middle East programme is jointly managed by MOD, FCO and DFID. DFID is managing the following Conflict Pool project:
| Name | Duration of Project | Budget (£) |
|
Basra Governance Support Programme-strengthening Basra provincial functions and structures. |
Cabinet Office
Admiralty House: Flags
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office for what reasons the Royal Standard was not hoisted at Admiralty House on the occasion of the visit of Her Majesty the Queen in June 2010. [4542]
Mr Maude: The Queen visited the Cabinet Office in June 2010 to attend a meeting of permanent secretaries and to meet a number of those civil servants who had recently been engaged in the process of forming a new Government. The character of this engagement did not automatically suggest that the Royal Standard should have been flown: neither the Cabinet Office nor Buckingham Palace requested it.
As a general rule, the Royal Standard is flown in the United Kingdom when the Queen is in residence in one of the Royal Palaces, on the Queen's car on official journeys and on aircraft (when on the ground). It may also be flown on any building, official or private (but not ecclesiastical buildings), during a visit by the Queen, if the owner or proprietor so requests.
Departmental Manpower
Mr Watson: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what discussions he has had with the UK Statistics Authority on (a) the publication by his Department of figures relating to non-payroll staff and (b) the application of the provisions of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 to that publication; and if he will make a statement. [4554]
Mr Maude: I discussed (a) the publication by my Department of figures relating to non-payroll staff and (b) the application of the provisions of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 to that publication with the National Statistician prior to their publication. The purpose of this discussion was to clarify the scope of the management data collection exercise and its relationship with official statistics.
Departmental Mobile Phones
Mark Tami: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for West Bromwich East of 14 June 2010, Official Report, column 329W, on departmental mobile telephones, what the (a) purchase cost of the handset, (b) network provider, (c) type of tariff and (d) name of the supplier was in respect of the BlackBerry devices issued to (i) himself, (ii) the Deputy Prime Minister and (iii) the Minister for Political and Constitutional Reform. [4064]
Mr Maude: The network provider for the Cabinet Office Blackberries provided to Ministers is Vodafone, the tariff is team work and BlackBerry and the supplier is Fujitsu. The Blackberries are provided as part of a departmental contract the costs of which will be available when the Department's resource accounts for the financial year have been fully audited and laid before Parliament.
Government Departments: ICT
Dr Pugh: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what plans he has to increase the efficiency of the arrangements for disposal, resale and refreshment of Government ICT equipment. [4338]
Mr Maude: Work to increase the efficiency of the disposal, resale and refreshment of Government ICT equipment will be taken forward by the Efficiency and Reform Group as part of this Government's commitment to centralise the procurement of commodity goods and services across Government.
Government Departments: Procurement
Mr Timpson: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what progress has been made towards publishing Government tenders in full online and free of charge. [4845]
Mr Maude: The Cabinet Office Structural Reform Plan, published on 15 June 2010, included a commitment to publish all new central Government tender documents above £10,000 on a single website free of charge, as part of the Government's transparency commitments.
A Public Sector Transparency Board has been established in the Cabinet Office. As Minister for the Cabinet Office I chair the Board. The Board's role will include providing support to Departments as they deliver their transparency commitments.
Guidance will be issued to Departments on how this commitment should be implemented.
In the meantime, Government Departments are currently encouraged to publish all new tender opportunities above £20,000 on:
Above defined value thresholds, there is a requirement to publish contract notices in the Official Journal of the EU.
Mr Timpson: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what progress has been made towards awarding 25 per cent. of Government contracts to small and medium-sized businesses. [4846]
Mr Maude: The Office of Government Commerce and BIS are working together to establish the baseline and put together a plan to address the issue.
Communities and Local Government
Housing: Greater London
Mr Lammy: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many and what proportion of new homes built in (a) Tottenham constituency, (b) the London Borough of Haringey and (c) London were affordable in each year since 1990. [4297]
Andrew Stunell: Statistics on house building and affordable housing supply are not collected at constituency level. The table presents the available data on the number of new build completions and the number of newly built affordable homes in the London borough of Haringey and across Greater London as a whole. The proportion of new build homes that were affordable should be interpreted with care as the estimates are taken from different data sources and therefore may not be directly comparable.
It should also be noted that not all affordable housing is provided through new-build completions as supply can also come from the acquisition and refurbishment of private sector homes. In 2008-09, for example, a total of 12,890 additional affordable homes were provided in London.
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