GS 77: Letter to the Chairman of the Committee from the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Foreign and Commonwealth Office

I know that the FAC, the Defence and International Development Committees have all taken a very close interest in the issue of the resources available to HMG for activity to prevent and resolve conflict, and in particular in the issue of how we will address rising assessed costs for international peacekeeping. I attach the text of a Written Ministerial Statement (WMS) which I have issued today, together with the Secretary of State for Defence and the Secretary of State for International Development.[1]

The WMS explains that we will earmark £456 million from the £556 million available for conflict in 09/10 to cover the projected rise in assessed peacekeeping costs. The FCO, DFID and MOD will allocate an additional £71 million from Departmental budgets to offset the impact of this on UK conflict prevention, stabilisation and discretionary peacekeeping activity. This will leave a total of £171 million for such activity.

The WMS contains further details of what we will continue to be able to fund under these new arrangements. Although assessed contributions to international peacekeeping are inherently volatile, these arrangements will allow us to meet our current forecast of £456 million in 2009/10. And they will also allow us to maintain current levels of activity in Afghanistan and across South Asia. But as the statement makes clear, we will need to discontinue funding in the Americas and cut funding to other regions, such as Africa.

We have come to these difficult decisions through careful prioritisation, which has allowed us to focus activity more tightly on countries where the risk and impact of conflict is greatest and where our actions will have the biggest impact. We are confident that this approach, as well as the additional £71 million which we have allocated, should allow us to maintain our significant contribution to international peacekeeping, and to fund essential conflict prevention and stabilisation activity in priority regions.

I am copying this letter to the Chairs of both the House of Commons Defence and International Development Committees.

Rt Hon David Miliband MP

25 March 2009

[1] HC Deb, 25 March 2009, col 17WS