§ Lord Aveburyasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they consider that the population transfer aspects of the proposed China Western Poverty Reduction Project have been the subject of local consultation in accordance with World Bank guidelines; whether environmental assessment of the project has been published; and, if either of these conditions has not been satisfied, whether they will instruct the United Kingdom Director of the World Bank to vote for reference of the project to the inspection panel. [HL2618]
§ Baroness AmosThe World Bank's staff appraisal report on this project has yet to issue, and DfID officials are seeking information from bank staff in Washington. As this is classified as a category B project for environmental purposes, an environmental impact assessment (EIA) has been carried out. This has been published only in Chinese in China. We expect an English version to be available shortly.
The independent inspection panel investigates complaints from private individuals (or civil society organisations on their behalf) who believe they have been or will be harmed by a bank supported project because the bank has not followed its own policies and procedures. It is then for the panel to decide whether the request for an inspection is within its mandate.