§ Mr. Alfred MorrisTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what special financial assistance has been given to Montserrat in consequece of the recent widespread hurricane damage in the dependency; if he will provide a breakdown of the extra expenditure incurred, indicating the purposes for which it was allocated in each case; and how much of the total expenditure has been or will be the responsibility of Ministers in the dependency.
§ Sir Peter EmeryTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assistance has been given to the island of Montserrat to overcome the damage caused by hurricane Hugo on 17 September.
§ Mrs. ChalkerImmediately following hurricane Hugo Britain made an initial £1 million available for emergency assistance, such as tents, blankets, roofing, medicaments and so on, and also the services of the British armed forces for immediate repairs and the airfreighting of supplies. Most of this assistance was directed to Montserrat. Subsequently, a further £3.2 million for reconstruction aid has been committed. This is being used to finance teams of engineers, linesmen and electricians—some 50 people—from British electricity boards who are repairing the power distribution system and for the supply of equipment and materials for the restoring of essential infrastructure. The funds will he used primarily in Montserrat, which suffered by far the worse damage, but also in Antigua.
Officials from the British development division in Barbados and from the United Kingdom have recently completed a review of Montserrat's longer-term reconstruction needs and strategy. We will be discussing these with the Government of Montserrat, and with the multilateral agencies and other donors.
The reconstruction work is the responsibility of the Montserrat Government and the public service companies concerned. The British Government will be contributing, and the ODA will monitor the use of aid funds in the usual way.