Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew Mitchell Excerpts

Wednesday 30th March 2011 Commons Chamber

[Lisa Nandy (Wigan) (Lab)]

1. What criteria he plans to use to assess the strategic plan for UN Women when determining the funding to be allocated to it.

[The Secretary of State for International Development (Mr Andrew Mitchell)]

We recently reviewed the value for money of British taxpayers’ funding to all multilateral agencies through the multilateral aid review. We will use the same broad criteria to assess UN Women’s strategic plan.

[Lisa Nandy]

Currently, new funding pledges to UN Women for 2011 amount to just $55 million, less than 10% of the target set by member states in 2010. In order for this important initiative to succeed—and so that the UK can say it played its part in its success—will the Minister heed the calls of Voluntary Service Overseas and others to provide adequate funding urgently?

[Mr Mitchell]

The hon. Lady is absolutely right to flag up the importance of this new agency and the fact that it has strong cross-party support. The United Kingdom played a key role in its establishment. We have provided transitional funding, and when we see the strategic plan in June, we will then fund it. I have no doubt at all that, in consultation with other funding bodies, we will be able to play a very full part.

[Duncan Hames (Chippenham) (LD)]

UN Women’s strategic plan is guided in part by millennium development goals 4 and 5. The Secretary of State has kindly just received from me Bradford-on-Avon Oxfam’s Mothers Matter card for mother’s day. Will the Secretary of State take this opportunity to restate to the House his Government’s commitment to working internationally to achieve MDGs 4 and 5 on maternal and child health?

[Mr Mitchell]

Yes, my hon. Friend is absolutely right. At the first international summit the Prime Minister attended after taking office following the election of the coalition Government, he flagged up the importance of MDGs 4 and 5 very directly. Oxfam’s campaign is an outstanding success. It is extremely important, and we will be following through on many of the aspects Oxfam has specifically mentioned when we have the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation replenishment conference in London on 13 June.

[John Mann (Bassetlaw) (Lab)]

2. What support his Department plans to give to development of the infrastructure of South Sudan in 2011-12.

[The Secretary of State for International Development (Mr Andrew Mitchell)]

Our main infrastructure investments in 2011-12 in southern Sudan are expected to be in roads in rural areas, primary and secondary schools, teacher training centres, health care centres and other facilities to reduce insecurity and increase access to basic services.

[John Mann]

Here we have a brand new country about to form—it will do so on 9 July—that wants to join the Commonwealth. Its people speak English, and it has great links with the United Kingdom. Should we not shift part of our budget in order to allow this new country to get developing fast?

[Mr Mitchell]

The hon. Gentleman makes a good point. That is why we have focused very specifically on our support for the referendum. We are working very closely with President Mbeki on the issues of the border. We have had many discussions about the very points the hon. Gentleman mentions, most recently when I saw Salva Kiir on my visit just before Christmas, and we will be strongly supporting the new state in a whole series of different ways once it is set up.

[Malcolm Bruce (Gordon) (LD)]

What engagement does the Secretary of State have with the African Development Bank and the World Bank on infrastructure development for southern Sudan—which, as he says, is desperately needed—given that the UK is a major contributor to both those organisations? What will their commitment be, and how will the Department for International Development co-ordinate with them?

[Mr Mitchell]

The Chairman of the departmental Select Committee is absolutely right to identify the crucial role that will be played by both the World Bank and the ADB. I recently had discussions on this very subject with Donald Kaberuka, the head of the ADB, in Addis Ababa at the African Union summit, and we will ensure that strong priority is given to infrastructure development. After all, this is a country with less than 28 km of tarmac roads.

[Mark Lazarowicz (Edinburgh North and Leith) (Lab/Co-op)]

Is the Secretary of State aware that there has recently been a big increase in land purchase by foreign investors in South Sudan? Although foreign investment can, of course, be very beneficial in the right circumstances, land speculation threatens food supplies and price stability not just in South Sudan but globally. What will the Secretary of State do to ensure that people in countries such as South Sudan do not become victims of land grabs by speculators?

[Mr Mitchell]

The hon. Gentleman rightly recognises one of the challenges for South Sudan. There is an array of challenges, on all of which Britain and the international community will seek to assist Salva Kiir and his new Government. I should make it clear to the hon. Gentleman that that country’s oil revenue gives it the opportunity between now and 2015 to make more progress on all these millennium development goals than any other country on earth. Britain will be playing its full part in trying to bring that about.

[Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (The Cotswolds) (Con)]

At a meeting yesterday, a former Foreign Secretary of Sudan said that when the new Government take over in July the desperate need will be for government advice and training, as well as infrastructure. What plans do my right hon. Friend and his Department have to provide that advice and training?

[Mr Mitchell]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right: supporting democratic and accountable government will be at the heart of what we are trying to do in South Sudan. When I was in Juba to open the new British Government office there before Christmas, I was able to see some direct technical assistance that Britain is giving. As he says, we will need more of that.

[Roberta Blackman-Woods (City of Durham) (Lab)]

3. What estimate he has made of the likely change in the level of official development assistance to Lesotho following the closure of his Department’s bilateral aid programme in that country.

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[Caroline Dinenage (Gosport) (Con)]

8. What plans he has for future levels of development aid to India.

[The Secretary of State for International Development (Mr Andrew Mitchell)]

I have frozen the India programme at current levels until 2015. Working closely with the Government of India, we will target our support on three of the poorest states. Our programme will change to reflect the importance of the role of the private sector.

[Caroline Dinenage]

Despite the undoubted poverty in India, the Indian Government have nuclear weapons, a space programme and their own programme for foreign aid. What can we do to encourage the Indian Government to spend more money on the things that they should spend money on, rather than on the things that they want?

[Mr Mitchell]

My hon. Friend is right to ask whether India has reached the point where we should end our development programme. Our judgment is that we are not there yet. As she said, India has more poor people than the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. It also has the biggest Government-led pro-poor, anti-poverty programme anywhere in the world, and through our programme, we are strongly encouraging more of the same.

[Anas Sarwar (Glasgow Central) (Lab)]

Will the Secretary of State outline what representations he has received from the Indian Government about his plans to spend 50% of DFID money on the private sector? Is that an aspiration only for India, or is it for other developing countries too?

[Mr Mitchell]

As the hon. Gentleman will know, the nature of development is to try to move countries off welfare development on to pro-poor, private sector investment, as that is something that helps poor people to lift themselves out of poverty. The decisions on the Indian programme were made in close consultation with the Indian Government, and take account of our priorities and theirs as well.

[Fiona Bruce (Congleton) (Con)]

9. How many organisations have (a) applied for and (b) been granted funds from his Department's global action poverty fund.

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[Ann Clwyd (Cynon Valley) (Lab)]

10. What humanitarian aid his Department is providing to the people of Libya.

[The Secretary of State for International Development (Mr Andrew Mitchell)]

We have provided funding for the International Committee of the Red Cross, which has sent in three medical teams, medical supplies to treat 3,000 people affected by fighting, and essential relief items for up to 100,000 of the most vulnerable.

[Ann Clwyd]

As the Minister knows, a team from Amnesty International has been in Libya for the past month, and it has found evidence of hundreds of missing and detained people. Given Gaddafi’s track record of extreme cruelty and torture, will he try to ensure that, at the very least, the ICRC has access to those detained people, so that news can be given to their families and they can have some contact with them?

[Mr Mitchell]

The right hon. Lady, who rightly always champions these issues, is entirely correct, which is why we and the United Nations have called strongly for unfettered access for humanitarian agencies. We continue to call for that access to be given throughout Libya.

[Martin Horwood (Cheltenham) (LD)]

The potential humanitarian crisis in Libya is one of those that should be influenced by the important report by Lord Ashdown on our response to humanitarian crises. I know that the Secretary of State welcomed the publication of that review. Can he give us some idea of the time scale for a Government response to this important piece of work?

[Mr Mitchell]

My hon. Friend is right. Lord Ashdown’s review of the way Britain conducts its humanitarian and emergency relief is outstanding. The Government will now consult and take six weeks to consider all the implications of that, and then report back to the House.

[Naomi Long (Belfast East) (Alliance)]

Many sub-Saharan Africans work as migrant workers in Libya and do not have the resources or the opportunity to be repatriated. One of my constituents, who works with the Somali community in Belfast, has contacted me as members of that community are very concerned about their relatives. What are the international community and our Government doing to try to stem that aspect of the humanitarian crisis?

[Mr Mitchell]

The hon. Lady is right to identify the migrant communities leaving Libya, especially through Tunisia, as particularly vulnerable. That is why Britain, along with others, has flown tens of thousands of them home to their countries and families. Britain has been involved in repatriating more than 12,500.

[David Morris (Morecambe and Lunesdale) (Con)]

11. What recent assessment he has made of the humanitarian situation on Libya’s borders with Tunisia and Egypt.

[Joseph Johnson (Orpington) (Con)]

13. What recent assessment he has made of the humanitarian situation on Libya’s borders with Tunisia and Egypt.

[The Secretary of State for International Development (Mr Andrew Mitchell)]

More than 350,000 people have crossed the Libyan borders since the crisis began. Early action by Britain and others has ensured that a logistical crisis has not, so far at least, developed into a humanitarian emergency.

[David Morris]

I thank my right hon. Friend for the work that he has done so far on the issue. Obviously, it is not for me to remind him that the eyes of the world are on that region, and that we must get it right for the people there.

[Mr Mitchell]

My hon. Friend is entirely correct. Britain was one of the first countries to provide blankets and tents for those who were caught out in the open on the borders. Following that, as I said in answer to the previous question, we were at the forefront of the international community in providing flights to repatriate migrant workers from both borders.

[Joseph Johnson]

One of the biggest challenges facing Egypt’s transition to democracy is the fragile state of its economy, with capital rapidly leaving the country. Can the Secretary of State please say what he will do to stop the additional pressure on the Egyptian economy from the influx of refugees from Libya, which is draining it of remittances and pushing up already high unemployment?

[Mr Mitchell]

My hon. Friend is right to identify a most important issue. I have made clear Britain’s significant contribution to ensuring that migrants are flown home. On the other points that he mentioned, some of that is a matter for the Paris Club of creditors, the other international financial institutions and the significant funding available from the European Union through the neighbourhood funds.

[Keith Vaz (Leicester East) (Lab)]

12. What discussions he has had with his EU and UN counterparts on the development implications of the state of emergency in Yemen.