Downing Street Says » Counter Terrorism Funding

Asked how the Prime Minister viewed the stories around counter terrorism funding, the Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) said it was important to remember the context of this issue and that the Government would be spending 3.5billion on counter terrorism in 2010/11, which was three times more than was spent at the time of September 11th 2001. The PMS added that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s (FCO) overseas contribution had increased significantly in the years since 2001 and that FCO spending on counter terrorism specifically in Pakistan had increased year on year and was projected to increase in 2010/11.

Asked to clarify what these figures were, the PMS said spending on counter terrorism in relation to Pakistan was 3.7 million in 2007/08, 6.2million in 2008/09 and 8.3 million in 2009/10. This clearly showed counter terrorism funding increasing year on year.

Asked how confusion had come about over this issue and if Baroness Kinnock had contributed to this, the PMS said that Baroness Kinnosk had not allowed any confusion to arise and that she had fully answered a question put to her in the House of Lords.

Asked if it was a mistake for the FCO to stop using the overseas pricing mechanism, the PMS said that the withdrawal of this mechanism in 2007 had encouraged more commercial style risk management and was agreed between the FCO and HM Treasury.

Asked if once the counter terrorism funding was converted from pounds sterling into other currencies such as the Pakistan Rupee it meant the budget was falling, the PMS said the Rupee conversion with relevant exchange rates for each year still showed an increase in counter terrorism funding. The PMS added that it was not as simple as to presume cash was simply transferred to Pakistan; counter terrorism funding worked in many different ways.

Asked if it would be solely for FCO to decide what projects would be scaled back if they were proving ineffective, the PMS said it would be a matter for the FCO.

Asked if there were similar concerns regarding projects for the Ministry of Defence (MoD) due to currency fluctuation, the PMS said that the MoD had been using this currency forward purchasing model for a longer period of time than the FCO.

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» Thursday, January 21, 2010

Counter Terrorism Funding

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