asked Her Majesty's Government:

What progress there has been on the commitments which they made at the G8 summit at Gleneagles in July 2005.

My Lords, important progress has been made since Gleneagles on developing G8 commitments both to support Africa's development and on climate change. For example, significant progress has been made towards writing off the debts of the poorest countries. However, many of the G8 commitments are long term and more remains to be done. We will continue to play our part and to push other partners to do theirs.

My Lords, I thank my noble friend for that realistic but positive answer. Does she agree that development aid is comprehensively undermined if the receiving country is riven by conflict that is fuelled by, in particular, small arms and light weapons? If so, can she say what efforts the UK is making to gain international agreement to prevent small arms sales to conflict zones, especially with countries that are hostile to the whole idea, such as the USA?

My Lords, my noble friend is quite right that small arms undermine development because they contribute to conflict. It is our strong view that we need an international arms trade treaty. The European Union and the Commonwealth gave their backing to that last year and we aim to secure a UN resolution to begin work on a treaty this autumn. In addition, the UK Global Conflict Prevention Pool recently funded the destruction of more than 3,300 weapons and 1.6 million rounds of ammunition in Mozambique.

My Lords, does the noble Baroness agree with the comment in Monday's Times that Gleneagles last year was "pure political theatre"? Has not aid spending by the UK during the past year since Gleneagles fallen by 2 per cent, not risen at all? It appears to be rising merely because the various amounts of debt forgiveness have been counted in aid figures. Is that correct?

My Lords, I certainly cannot agree with that. I would not call 100 per cent debt cancellation for 21 countries, 15 of them in Africa, an exercise in political theatre. We have had the launch of the international finance facility for immunisation to tackle preventable diseases, which is funded. We have also had the launch of the UN Peacebuilding Commission and of the infrastructure consortium, and two weeks ago I myself launched the investment climate facility in Cape Town. There has been substantial progress, but this is a long-term agenda. Our aid budget has gone up 140 per cent since 1997. If the noble Lord's party is really interested in development, it should consider the years when it was in power, when the aid budget went down steadily year on year.

My Lords, we on these Benches applaud the Prime Minister's intention, announced a few days ago, to ensure that by 2015 every African child has access to a school education. To this end, UK aid is to be £1 billion. First, is that to be a one-off £1 billion, or will it be annual? Secondly, will this aid be targeted to the neediest parts of Africa, such as Sierra Leone? What channels will we use to ensure that the aid reaches the places where it is most needed and can be put to the most effective use?

My Lords, the £1 billion is annual in the sense that we made a commitment to increase our spending to £1 billion a year. That figure should go up over the years, given our commitment that half the doubling of the aid between now and 2010 will go to African countries. Last month, 22 African countries agreed to develop ambitious and costed 10-year education plans, and we announced that we would spend at least £8.5 billion on education in developing countries over the next decade. I have forgotten the third part of the noble Lord's question, I am afraid.

My Lords, the third part of my question was: what channels—what agencies—will the UK Government use?

My Lords, the most effective way of giving our aid to countries where we are sure the money will not be siphoned off through corruption is through budget support; in other words, by supporting the priorities of the Governments themselves. We also work through NGOs and multilateral organisations such as the World Bank and the African Development Bank.

My Lords, does my noble friend recall—the noble Lord, Lord Howell, may not have done so—that a very important additional outcome of Gleneagles was the decision of the European Council, under the chairmanship of our Prime Minister last December, to agree a strategic partnership for Africa? Can she confirm that central to that was the inextricable relationship between governance, security and development? Will she also report progress on the African Union buy-in to that joint strategy?

My Lords, the European Commission intends to release a governance initiative as part of the integration of governance, security and development. It is currently in discussions with the African Union on implementing the strategy, which will continue as part of the EU/AU dialogue process.

My Lords—

My Lords, it is the turn of Members on the Cross Benches.

My Lords, am I right that $9 billion over three years was pledged for the development of Gaza? I quite understand that it has not been possible to spend that money, but could it be used for the benefit of Palestinians on the West Bank, or through the UNRWA, or elsewhere—for example in Lebanon?

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Hylton, will know that, in light of the election of a Hamas Government, we have been looking at putting in place a separate, temporary mechanism to get money to the Palestinian people. We will continue to look at the wider use of that $9 billion over three years, which was agreed at Gleneagles, but there are capacity issues in UNRWA and other organisations operating in the Palestinian territories.

My Lords, what is being done to improve transport, skills and knowledge, particularly in Africa, rather than the infrastructure projects?

My Lords, building capacity in a range of areas, including transport, is a key part of not only our development initiatives but those of other countries. I do not have information on transport specifically but, if I can find more, I will write to the noble Earl.

My Lords, in my noble friend's initial Answer, she said that Her Majesty's Government are pushing our G8 partners to fulfil their commitments. Have any of our G8 partners not fulfilled their commitments over debt cancellation? If so, which?

My Lords, I do not think that any countries have not fulfilled their commitments on debt relief. There is a five-year programme on aid volumes until 2010. European Union countries have also signed up to reaching the aid target of 0.7 per cent of their gross national income by 2015. But if I am wrong on that, I will write to my noble friend.

My Lords—

My Lords, without accepting the automatic equation between aid and development, which seemed to be implicit in the noble Baroness's earlier answer to me, will this whole issue of aid and development and help to Africa be on the agenda for the St Petersburg summit in a few days' time?

My Lords, there will be a report-back led by the Prime Minister at the G8 St Petersburg summit. We are not looking only at aid and development. A key part of what came out of the Commission for Africa last year was the importance of getting the investment climate right in developing countries, because it is economic growth that will deliver a route out for development.