§ Mr. SandersTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to his answer of 6 March 2002, ref 39187, on non-governmental organisations, what information he collates on the funding of non-governmental organisations by his Department, with particular reference to those operating on a regional level; and if he will make a statement. [42540]
§ Mr. StrawThe FCO does not keep information centrally about the funding of NGOs and nor do FCO Commands keep that information broken down on a regional basis. It would be difficult to arrive at a precise answer because the FCO could be said to "fund" NGOs in a great variety of ways—some are contracted to provide specific services in relation to projects funded by Command Programme Budgets and specific Programme funds (e.g. Human Rights Project Fund), others may well receive financial support to attend conferences etc as guests of HMG. In some cases posts overseas may use local budgets to pay, for example, for accommodation of NGO visitors on official business.