§ Mr. Bowen Wellsasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from within which heads of expenditure in the Overseas Development Administration budget he has taken the additional £5 million announced by the Minister for Overseas Development on 13 January, Official Report, column 723, to be made available to the Save the Children Fund and the £200,000 to Oxfam; and if he will state, in each case, the residual amounts left in each budget so reduced.
§ Mr. RaisonAs I announced on 13 January, an additional £5 million has been made available through Save the Children Fund, mainly to meet the costs of urgent food distribution in Darfur. The requirement falls mainly in the first half of 1986, and will be met in part this financial year (that is, up to 31 March) and in part next. The amount required this financial year, estimated at up to £2 million, and the £200,000 for Oxfam are available as a result of unavoidable slippage in other programmes. The scope for these new allocations has been identified by an assessment of the forecast of overall spending against the total resources available; they cannot meaningfully be related to reduced spending forecasts for other individual programme items.
§ Mr. Bowen Wellsasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list all Overseas Development Administration programmes which 284W have suffered unavoidable slippage to the year to date; and by how much he estimates he will (a) overspend and (b) underspend and what will be the net total.
§ Mr. RaisonI am not prepared to publish such a list. Forecasts of the spending outturn for each aid programme item are the subject of a continual process of assessment throughout the year; most are subject to frequent revision reflecting the changes in the many factors usually affecting the rate of spending. Publication of such figures for particular points in time during the financial year would in my view serve little purpose.
On present forecasts for 1985–86 I expect to neither overspend nor underspend the total aid resources available.
§ Mr. Bowen Wellsasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs to what programmes he has allocated the current year's contingency reserve; and how much remains to be allocated.
§ Mr. RaisonThe aid programme's contingency reserve for 1985–86 has been fully allocated. Its distribution by Supply Estimates subheads is as follows:
£ million Emergency assistance for disasters and refugee relief 35.4 (Subheads A15, A16 and C1 of the Supply Estimates) of which— Africa £29 million Elsewhere £6.4 million Bilateral country programme 21.9 (Subheads B1 and B3) Other programmes 0.3 including: WHO Action Programme on Essential Drugs and Vaccines (Subhead A8) United Nations Office of Emergency Operations in Africa (Subhead A8) Total 57.6
§ Mr. Charles Morrisonasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what contributions are being made for 1986 to (a) the International Planned Parenthood Federation, (b) The United Nations Fund for 285W Population Activities and (c) the World Health Organisation's special programme on human reproduction.
§ Mr. RaisonWe have made the following pledges for 1986, subject to parliamentary approval:
- (a) International Planned Parenthood Federation: £5.3 million;
- (b) United Nations Fund for Population Activities: £4.5 million;
- (c) World Health Organisation's Special Programme on Human Reproduction: £2.2 million.