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Tibet
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent research he has (a) commissioned and (b) evaluated on the (i) use of torture and (ii) number of political prisoners in Tibet; and if he will make a statement. [56527]
Ian Pearson:
The Government are very concerned about torture and the detention of individuals on political grounds in Tibet. We have not commissioned research into incidences of torture in Tibet. We regularly raise our concerns about Tibetan prisoners, including at a high level. We strongly supported the visit to China by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Manfred Nowak, in November 2005. He subsequently said that he believed that torture, though on the decline, particularly in urban areas, remained widespread and that this was increasingly recognised by Chinese officials. We agree with this assessment and hope that the Chinese Government will consider carefully the rapporteur's recommendations when they issue, with a view to making a wholehearted effort to implement them.
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Venezuela
Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent assessment he has made of Chinese-Venezuelan relations; whether he has received representations from Venezuela concerning oil export policies; and if he will make a statement. [56264]
Mr. Douglas Alexander: Bilateral relations between China and Venezuela are a matter for the two countries concerned. We support the development of a strong multilateral system of cooperation on all issues between all countries.
We have received no recent representations from the Venezuelan authorities about oil export policies. However, we continue to have regular dialogue with Venezuela about energy related issues.
INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
International Tax Co-operation
Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps his Department is taking to implement Paragraph 64 of the Monterrey Consensus relating to international tax co-operation. [55055]
Dawn Primarolo: I have been asked to reply.
The UK plays a leading role in encouraging international cooperation on tax issues. HM Revenue and Customs is active in capacity building for developing economies in a range of tax-oriented programmes. This includes running two programmes of training for tax inspectors from Commonwealth countries each year, contributing to the large OECD outreach programme aimed at developing and transition economies as well as individual development projects. The UK participates in the newly structured UN Intergovernmental Commission on Tax and in the multilateral International Tax Dialogue, which brings together the work of the OECD, World Bank and IMF.
Poverty/Wealth Inequality
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what recent assessment he has made of levels of (a) poverty and (b) wealth inequality in (i) India, (ii) Nigeria, (iii) Russia and (iv) China. [56382]
Mr. Thomas: The information requested is as follows.
The DFID office in India regularly assesses progress on poverty reduction and other Millennium Development Goals (MDG)s. These assessments are based on official Government of India statistics, but take into account concerns over the quality of data and independent assessments where appropriate.
The most recent assessment of progress at the national level was undertaken in September 2004, and concluded that India is on track to meet the MDG target of reducing the proportion of people living on under a dollar a day by 2015. The estimate of poverty used in that assessment is based on the most recent large scale
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National Sample Survey of the Government of India, carried out in 2000. The actual proportion of the population living in poverty was assessed as 29 per cent. according to the national poverty line, and 35 per cent. according to the international ($/day) poverty line, or between 300 million and 360 million people in poverty, depending on which poverty line is used. Results from the next large-scale National Sample Survey are expected to be published in 2006 or 2007, at which point it will be necessary to update our assessment.
Assessments of inequality in India carried out by DFID, have to date focused mainly on geographical inequality, which is acknowledged to be increasing and is high on the Indian government's agenda. The aggregate picture at national level masks wide variations between states and districts. Among the four focal states for direct DFID assistance alone, (Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Orissa) estimates for 2000, using the national poverty line, range from 16 per cent. (Andhra Pradesh) to 47 per cent. (Orissa). There are similar disparities with respect to the other MDGs.
An assessment of trends in income distribution was undertaken as part of an India case study on Operationalising Pro-poor Growth commissioned by DFID's central Policy Division in 2005. This concluded that, while there is evidence of growing inequality since the early 1990s, economic growth has been sufficiently strong to generate substantial poverty reduction in spite of this.
DFID monitors poverty and inequality measures and participates in initiatives to generate new knowledge on these matters in Nigeria.
The most recently completed national exercises covering poverty and inequality in Nigeria is the Demographic and Health Survey 2003. This presents data on a range of social and socio-economic indicators, including: employment patterns, infant and child mortality, maternal and child health, fertility, and family planning, and is analysed by a range of categories including geographical zone, age, sex and wealth. One of the key findings is that while levels of poverty across much of Nigeria are high by any standard, they are significantly higher in northern Nigeria.
DFID Nigeria is heavily involved in a range of ongoing initiatives at the national level that will generate important new knowledge on poverty and inequality. These include the National Poverty Assessment (NPA), the Nigerian Census 2006, and the national Core Welfare Indicators Questionnaire.
The NPA will provide a comprehensive analysis across five areas: poverty profile, inequality and poverty, the MDGs, health and education, and rural poverty. Key results include the following: absolute poverty (using a minimum calorific requirement of 2,900 calories per day for the average Nigerian) and $/day poverty lines suggest that between 50–55 per cent. of Nigerians live in poverty; levels of income poverty at state level are close to 90 per cent. in some northern states and are generally significantly lower in the south; the Gini co-efficient—a standard measure of income inequality—is close to 0.5, which is high by international standards and has recently been cited as the mark at
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which the poverty returns to growth tend towards zero; income inequalities within states are lowest in northern Nigeria and highest in certain southern regions (over 0.5).
In Russia, DFID relies on poverty and inequality assessments made by international organisations such as the United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank. DFID Russia provides assistance through the World Bank to help improve the quality of poverty assessments made by the Russian Government. In addition, DFID programmes in two regions; Leningrad and Nizhny—provides funds to carry out (for the first time in Russia) household budget surveys to assess levels of regional poverty and help target scarce resources to address poverty and support to vulnerable groups.
Latest estimates derived from an ongoing DFID funded participatory poverty assessment (PPA) suggest that the number of people living below US$1 per day fell from 33 per cent. of the population in 1990 to about 10.4 per cent. of the population; around 135 million
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people, in 2004. China has therefore met the income poverty Millennium Development Goal but there remain pockets of extreme poverty, for instance, in remote mountainous areas, amongst ethnic minorities or within vulnerable groups such as the elderly and disabled. The PPA suggests that some 93 per cent. of the absolute poor are rural with another 6 per cent. being rural to urban migrants. About one in two poor people live in the Western provinces, which have 29 per cent. of the population. Chinese official estimates currently suggest 26 million people are living in poverty. However, this group is best characterised as extremely poor, as China's poverty thresholds are low both by international standards and in terms of adequate coverage of basic needs.
Progress against non-income dimensions of poverty has been slower than might have been expected from China's average 9 per cent. growth rate since 1990. While China is ahead of target on access to universal primary education, progress on HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis, environmental sustainability including access to water and sanitation, and gender equality is lagging. Continuing effort will still be required to meet child and maternal mortality goals if China is to remain on track to meet these.
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