HC Deb 08 July 2002 vol 388 c651W
Lynne Jones

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list the budgets for the training of military and security personnel from overseas(a) in the UK and (b) overseas for (i) each of the past two years, (ii) the current year and (iii) future years for which estimates are available. [65261]

Mr. Mike O'Brien

Funding for the training of military and security personnel (including police forces, customs and border guards) from overseas comes from a variety of FCO departmental budgets. It supports FCO objectives such as promoting international peace and stability, and improved quality of life world-wide through good governance and crime reduction. A breakdown of approximate expenditure as requested by financial year (f/y) is:

£
F/y 2000–01 F/y 2001–02 F/y 2002–03
UK training 2,964,040 671,829 157,431
Overseas training 5,676,188 4,690,909 4,890,181

Future estimates are not yet available.

The reduction of FCO expenditure in f/ys 2001–02 and 2002–03 does not reflect a reduction in activity. It is because the FCO contributed a large part of its military and security training funding to the two cross-departmental Conflict Prevention Pools (involving FCO, MOD, DfID and HMT) established in April 2001 for Africa and the rest of the world. Each of the four Government Departments made a contribution to the pools. Many of the training activities continue to be supported by the pools because they achieve HMG's conflict prevention objectives overseas. In f/y 2001–02, the Africa Pool had a budget of £50 million and this will remain the same through to f/y 2003–04. The Global Pool was allocated £60 million for f/y 2001–02, £66 million for this financial year and will have £76 million to spend in f/y 2003–04.

Information on the FCO's ASSIST training budget f/y 000–01, which was the principle contribution to the pools is available from an earlier answer given by the then Parliamentary Under-Secretary, my hon. Friend the Member for Exeter (Mr. Bradshaw) to my hon. Friend the Member for Dundee, West (Mr. Ross) on 10 January 2002, Official Report, column 957W.