Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the answer by Lord Wallace of Saltaire on 24 November (HL Deb, col 678), in which specific islands and with which specific funding streams they are prioritising the Caribbean; and whether they consider it to be a priority.

The Caribbean is an important region for the UK, with which we have many historic and cultural ties, as well as shared interests and goals. As such, the UK wants to support the development of prosperous, resilient and secure economies in the region. We organise our work in this area under three broad categories: energy security, education, and security, all of which were discussed at the UK-Caribbean Forum Ministerial Forum in June of this year.

The Department for International Development (DfID) are currently launching a new set of development programmes which will run from 2015 to 2020. The UK has committed approximately £75 million between 2011 and 2015 and will invest a similar amount in the 2015-2020 period. The UK also accounts for approximately 15 per cent of the EU’s development funds, as well as being a major contributor to the World Bank and Caribbean Development Bank funds being deployed in the region, and has contributed some 48 per cent of the total funding for the Pilot Programme for Climate Resilience (PPCR). In addition, while DfID are the largest source of Government funding in the region, the Home Office, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Crown Prosecution Service, and the Ministry of Defence all fund activities in the region.

Specifically, DfID will deepen its development activities with Jamaica, Grenada, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Lucia, Dominica and Antigua and Barbuda. It is our intent to support these countries efforts to return to growth while managing the risks from external shocks.