§ Mrs. ClwydTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is the size of the ODA's contingency reserve, the disaster relief budget and the food aid budget for financial year 1991–92; whether any changes have been made to each of those since the start of the financial year; and how much of each has so far been allocated and for what purpose.
§ Mrs. ChalkerFor 1991–92 the contingency reserve was initially set at £70 million. Allocations totalling 571W £22.727 million have been made—£19.5 million for Iraqi refugee relief, £3.0 million towards Bangladesh cyclone relief, £0.227 million in respect of other emergencies.
Parliamentary approval for expenditure arising from these dispositions will be sought as appropriate through the estimates.
Within the contingency reserve £10 million was set aside initially for disaster relief. Of this £9 million was provided for in subhead A3(7) of the supply estimates, of which £2,827,000 has been spent, as follows:
£ Iraqi refugees (Kurdish crisis) 2,600,000 UNDRO: Afghanistan earthquake 7,000 World Vision: Malawi floods 46,000 SCF: Malawi floods 114,000 SCF: Uganda displaced persons 60,000 Assistance for the Bangladesh cyclone and further assistance for the Iraqi refugees will be charged to this subhead, supplemented as necessary by transfers from the unallocated section.
The remaining £1 million was provided for in subhead B3(9) and has yet to be spent.
Provision for food aid in 1991–92, under subheads A3(8) and B3(8) in the supply estimates, totals £19.5 million. Allocations are made in terms of tonnes of cereals, as this is the basis of the United Kingdom's obligation under the food aid convention. The following allocations have been made:
Subhead A3(8) Bilateral Food Aid Country Quantity tonnes Ethiopia 25,000 Mozambique 10,000 Sudan 25,000 Total 60,000 Subhead B3(8) Multilateral Food Aid Angola (fulfilment of 1990–91 pledge to special UN programme which has been delayed due to local difficulties) 2,200 World food programme regular programme 25,000 Protracted refugee operations: Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia 5,000 Mozambican refugees in Malawi 5,000 International emergency food reserve 10,000 Total 47,200 Plus cash contribution to WFP administrative expenses £500,000