To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1) what estimate she has made of the (a) area and (b) yield of this year's opium crop in the Helmand province; (80429)

It is too early to provide accurate figures on the area and yield of this year's opium crop in Helmand Province. However, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime's (UNODC) Rapid Assessment Survey of March 2006 suggests that following a 21 per cent. reduction in overall cultivation last year, planting may increase in 13 of Afghanistan's 32 provinces, including Helmand. Research commissioned by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has shown that in areas with better security, governance and access to resources, there may be further reductions this year.

Eradication was carried out in Helmand by the Afghan Government, at the request of and under the control of the Provincial Governor. The UNODC is currently in the process of verifying levels of eradication delivered, both in Helmand and in Afghanistan as a whole. Final figures for both eradication and cultivation should be available in the autumn. Eradication is a useful deterrent where there is access to legal livelihoods, tackling the drugs problem requires a range of activities including arresting and convicting the traffickers who profit from the trade, and putting in place the development programmes which enable fanners to move away from growing poppy. That is why the UK is spending £270 million over a three-year period on supporting the Government of Afghanistan's National Drug Control Strategy.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many officials from her Department are based in each province in Afghanistan, broken down by job function. (82734)

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office currently has 34 staff serving in Afghanistan. For reasons of personnel security and safety it is not possible to give details of locations or specific functions of staff deployed in Afghanistan.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to the answer of 9 February 2006, Official Report, column 1448W, on Afghanistan, what progress the Afghan/UN/US forum in Kabul is making in respect of each of the five pillars of Security Sector Reform. (83288)

The London conference on Afghanistan launched the Afghanistan Compact. This provides the framework for continued international engagement in Afghanistan over the next five years. The Joint Co-ordination and Monitoring Board (JCMB) was established by the Compact to co-ordinate the international effort more effectively and to measure progress against the benchmarks and timelines set out in the Compact. Consultative Groups focussing on the eight sectors and five cross-cutting themes covered in the Compact have met and will report to the next JCMB’s meeting at the end of July.