HC Deb 28 July 2000 vol 354 cc1084-5W
Mr. Spring

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how much of the funding for conflict prevention in each of the next three years is(a) additional money provided as a result of the Comprehensive Spending Review and (b) taken from existing budgets. [132875]

Mr. Hain

The Spending Review 2000 settlement for conflict prevention is:

£ million
2001–02 2002–03 2003–04
Rest of the World
Additional resources 12 20 30
Indicative resources for forecast peacekeeping/enforcement operations 340 380 380
Contributions from Departments
DFID 9 9 9
FCO 7 7 7
MOD 32 32 32

Of the indicative resources for peacekeeping for both sub-Saharan Africa and the Rest of the World, in the event of underspends, up to 10 per cent. can be used for programme expenditure.

Unforeseen peacekeeping operations or unexpected increases in assessed contributions for international peacekeeping will be met in the first instance by re-prioritising within the pool. If this proves insufficient, the pool will have access to the DEL Reserve.UN arrears of £30 million due to the UK for UNPROFOR which would be returned to the Treasury Consolidated Fund, will be retained by the conflict prevention pools. This amount is not included in the table.

Mr. Spring

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how he proposes to measure his PSA target of reducing the number of people whose lives are affected by violent conflict where the United Kingdom make a significant contribution to conflict prevention and management, as set out in the Comprehensive Spending Review. [132978]

Mr. Hain

The Government have set themselves a target for the period beginning next financial year to improve the effectiveness of the UK contribution to conflict prevention and management, as demonstrated, inter alia, by the number of people whose lives are affected by violent conflict, where the UK can make a significant impact. We will be working with DFID, MOD and other relevant Government Departments in the autumn to identify priority activities to address this overall objective, verifiable indicators for each activity, and current baselines against which progress can be measured.