HL Deb 11 October 2004 vol 665 c2WA
Lord Ahmed

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether the United Kingdom would benefit from a ministry in government to deal with conflict resolution. [HL3748]

Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Ministry of Defence and the Department for International Development already contribute significant resources and effort to conflict prevention; both as individual departments and jointly through the Government's Global and Africa Conflict Prevention Pools. The Government have no plans to establish a separate ministry to deal with conflict resolution.

The Conflict Prevention Pools are subject to ministerial oversight and direction at Cabinet level. A major external evaluation of the pools in 2004 concluded that the progress achieved through the pools' mechanisms is significant enough to justify their continuation, and that they are funding worthwhile activities that make positive contributions to effective conflict prevention.