Adam Ingram (East Kilbride, Strathaven & Lesmahagow, Labour)

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how much of the $750 million pledged by the UK to the Global Threat Reduction Strategy under the Global Partnership has been spent; and what the budget allocation is for each year up to 2012, broken down by project.

Ivan Lewis (Minister of State (Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs), Foreign and Commonwealth Office; Bury South, Labour)

holding answer 26 October 2009

As detailed in the published Sixth Annual Report of the Global Threat Reduction Programme (GTRP) (2008), of the $750 million pledged by the UK in 2002 to the Global Partnership fund, £270 million had been spent by the end of 2008. Figures for 2009 will be published in the 2009 annual report. At the last comprehensive spending review, the GTRP budget was set at £36.5 million per annum for the three years 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11.

In a speech earlier this year, my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister stated that funding would remain at this level for 'the foreseeable future'. A breakdown of expenditure to the end of 2008 in the key project areas, also detailed in the Sixth Annual Report, is set out in the following table. An update of spending by project will be provided in the 2009 annual report. The GTRP Ministerial Oversight Board meeting in November is scheduled to approve budget allocations for future years.

The full report is available to download at:

http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/what_we_do/uk_supply/energy_mix/nuclear/nonprolif/global_threat/annual_report/annual_report.aspx