§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list the decisions under the Iraq oil for food scheme to allocate money from the relevant United Nations escrow account for items other than food and medicine for the Iraqi people; what was the amount in each case; and what position the UK representative at the UN took on each matter. [113064]
§ Mr. HainThe Office of the Iraq Programme has received over 17,500 applications under the Oil for Food programme. The total value of these contracts, including the cost of shipping comes to about US$ 14.5 billion.
As my hon. Friend will appreciate, the volume of applications received under the Oil for Food programme make it impractical to provide the information requested in full.
The United Kingdom has no objection to the vast majority of Oil for Food applications. Over 96 per cent. of all contracts submitted under the Oil for Food programme have been approved by the Office of the Iraq Programme. Of the 17,500 Oil for Food applications received by the Office of the Iraq programme the United Kingdom has, of today's date, only 166 contracts on hold. The majority of holds are placed on contracts while a 618W request is made for additional information so that we can ensure that the terms of the contract are consistent with the relevant Security Council resolutions on Iraq.