asked Her Majesty's Government:
What has been the cost to the Treasury of contingent liabilities to each Overseas Territory in each of the past 10 years for which figures are available; and how much of this has been due to damage caused by climate incidents and other natural phenomena. [HL5520]
All assistance arises from the UK's contingent liability to meet the reasonable assistance needs of the Overseas Territories, and defence commitments.
The following government departments provide the majority of the assistance to the Overseas Territories: the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), the Department for International Development (DfID), the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the Department for Transport (DfT).
DfID bilateral aid to the Overseas Territories between 1998-99 and 2007-08 was:
1998-99 1999-00 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 St Helena & Dependencies 8,805 9,363 10,116 10,106 9,555 10,525 14,481 13,564 15,692 17,550 Anguilla 1,977 2,058 2,232 1,847 1,044 954 1,216 895 127 British Virgin Islands 622 516 186 83 90 11 Cayman Islands 23 18 20 3 Montserrat 30,804 22,273 19,597 22,481 23,350 24,757 14,151 12,617 15,556 17,164 Turks and Caicos Islands 3,808 4,044 2,845 2,719 1,532 741 1,187 357 149 178 Pitcairn 148 99 18 26 53 64 1,314 2,582 1,837 1,460 Bermuda 13 4 Falkland Islands Gibraltar 28 23 27 23 6 5 1 2 1 Regional programmes 563 578 1,618 1,409 957 663 642 1,532 1,771 1,001 TOTALS 46,779 38,984 36,662 38,697 36,586 37,719 32,991 31,548 35,132 37,353
Within these amounts, DfID provided bilateral humanitarian assistance following natural disasters to Montserrat (£19.9 million), St. Helena and Dependencies (£165,000), Anguilla (£112,000) and the Cayman Islands (£3,000).
DfID also made payments to the Gibraltar Social Insurance Fund in respect of the pension liabilities of certain Spanish nationals who had worked in Gibraltar, totalling £77.4 million between 1998-99 and 2006-07. In 2007-08 DfID made further payments of £15.3 million consisting of pension liabilities and incentive payments made to affected Spanish pensioners as part of the Cordoba pensions settlement.
The FCO's Overseas Territories Programme Fund (OTPF) has a number of high-level objectives, including ensuring that the UK's contingent liabilities are well managed and mitigated. Funding to the Overseas Territories, from this and its predecessor fund, since 2000 has been:
2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 £m 3.30 2.95 2.84 3.10 3.00 6.50 4.50 6.60
The Department for Transport takes the lead in mitigating contingent liability arising from maritime and aviation activities in the Overseas Territories. Expenditure in these areas has been:
2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 £m n/a 0.461 0.461 2.91 2.05 3.06 3.47 3.36
1 Aviation Safety spend only. Other figures not readily available
The Ministry of Defence spent £104 million on maintaining its defence presence in the Falkland Islands in 2008-09. It commits approximately £2 million each year to fund defence of the Overseas Territories and disaster relief in the Caribbean Overseas Territories.