Asked by: Sheila Gilmore (Labour - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how much his Department has spent from the Conflict Pool in each country in each year since its launch.
Answered by Mark Simmonds
The tri-departmental Conflict Pool in its current form was created in 2010. The Conflict Pool is managed on a regional programme basis. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has funded projects in all of the Conflict Pool's five regional programmes: in Afghanistan; in Africa where activity has included work in Nigeria, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya; in the Middle East and North Africa including projects in Syria, Libya, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories; in South Asia where activity has mostly been in Pakistan; and activity through the Wider Europe programme in the Western Balkans, the Caucasus and Central Asia. Activity in all these programmes includes regional, cross-border and multilateral projects as well as country-specific activity. The FCO also funds activity through the Strengthening Alliances and Partnerships Programme (SAP) supporting international organisations, including the UN and international NGOs, to prevent conflict.
It is therefore not possible to break down spend fully on a country basis. The FCO's spend by programme from FY2009/10 to FY 2013/14 is detailed below:
Africa
2009/10 £11,513,293
2010/11 £10,148,734
2011/12 £23,928,463
2012/13 £22,648,917
2013/14 £24,575,287
Afghanistan
2009/10 £65,015,660
2010/11 £72,260,986
2011/12 £67,391,371
2012/13 £48,274,454
2013/14 £35,123,462
MENA
2009/10 £13,086,773
2010/11 £8,219,371
2011/12 £15,390,246
2012/13 £17,286,896
2013/14 £44,656,803
South Asia
2009/10 £5,162,725
2010/11 £6,886,111
2011/12 £10,048,078
2012/13 £13,382,327
2013/14 £15,238,714
SAP
2009/10 £1,795,450
2010/11 £1,879,215
2011/12 £1,314,659
2012/13 £3,043,310
2013/14 £3,004,862
Wider Europe
2009/10 £22,606,731
2010/11 £9,201,708
2011/12 £8,024,044
2012/13 £11,034,924
2013/14 £15,001,854
Asked by: Sheila Gilmore (Labour - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what the eligibility criteria are for projects requiring Conflict Pool funding.
Answered by Mark Simmonds
The Conflict Pool is a tri-departmental resource managed jointly by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Ministry of Defence and the Department for International Development. It funds conflict prevention activity in fragile and conflict affected states that are high priorities for the UK. Conflict Pool projects must support the priorities in the Building Stability Overseas Strategy. These are: early warning; rapid crisis response; and upstream conflict prevention, focusing on supporting free, transparent and inclusive political systems; effective and accountable security and justice (including defence engagement) and developing the capacity of local populations and regional and multilateral institutions to prevent and resolve the conflicts that affect them. Conflict Pool funding is a mix of ODA and non-ODA eligible funding and project work is undertaken by a wide range of implementers including HMG, NGOs and international bodies.
Asked by: Sheila Gilmore (Labour - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how much each (a) HM Embassy and (b) UK High Commission spend on hosting a party to mark the official birthday of HM Queen Elizabeth II in the last year for which figures are available.
Answered by Mark Simmonds
The costs of each Queen's Birthday Party organised across our network of overseas missions are wholly or partially paid for out of locally held budgets in each country. These figures are therefore not available without incurring disproportionate cost.
The Queen's Birthday Party offers an excellent opportunity to promote the United Kingdom and build relations with a wide range of contacts and local opinion formers during this special but dignified occasion.
Asked by: Sheila Gilmore (Labour - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 18 June 2014, Official Report, column 639W, on official visits, what domestic visits each of the Ministers of his Department has made since January 2013; and what the purpose of each such visit was.
Answered by David Lidington
Since January 2013 FCO Ministers have made official domestic visits to the locations set out in the attached table.
Asked by: Sheila Gilmore (Labour - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what visits each of the Ministers in his Department have made since January 2013; and what the purpose of each such visit was.
Answered by David Lidington
Details of Ministers' visits overseas are published quarterly and can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/ministers-transparency-publications