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Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Scheme

I start by thanking the noble Lord, Lord Luce, for raising what is undoubtedly an important topic and for the way in which he has done so. I welcome the opportunity to reiterate the Government’s commitment to the Commonwealth and their continuing support for the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan. The distinguished cast of speakers today has spoken with deep passion about the importance of this country’s connections with the Commonwealth and the role that scholarships play in helping to build relationships between its member countries. All I would ask the noble Lord, Lord Howell, is whether it has only been 60 minutes. It seems rather longer to me. I start, as I think I must, by reminding noble Lords of the context of the announcement by my right honourable friend the Foreign Secretary in March that the FCO would stop funding scholarships for developed Commonwealth countries. A year ago, the FCO went through a process to establish a new strategic framework in place of 10 international strategic priorities in place when the new ministerial team took office in the summer. The Foreign Secretary announced the outcome on 23 January. Essentially, the new strategic framework has three elements, reflecting the FCO’s three core roles: advancing the UK's international policy goals, providing services internationally to UK citizens and businesses, and delivering both through a global network. The Foreign Secretary also announced that he would put more of the FCO’s overall resources into the four new policy priorities on which his department would focus. This reprioritisation of resources included a reduction of the overall FCO budget for scholarships and fellowships, and a refocusing of that budget, which is a limited budget, in line with the FCO’s policy priorities. As has been said during the debate, the FCO is using its scholarships to build a global network of future leaders who will be friends to this country, particularly in countries which are in political transition or are major emerging markets. I should remind the Committee that they include a number of Commonwealth countries. Top of the 15 countries for the FCO’s Chevening scholarships this year is China—I gently chide the noble Lord, Lord McNally, who said that it was top of the pops little more than for the moment; I think that it will be top of the pops for a while yet. China is followed by India, Indonesia, Brazil, Russia, Egypt, Nigeria, Pakistan, Iraq, Turkey, Mexico, Malaysia, Iran, South Africa—about which we heard—and Hong Kong. There are more than 100 Chevening scholars from China this year, helped by large co-sponsorship from Hutchison Whampoa in Hong Kong and other organisations. There are more than 30 Chevening scholars from India, and more than 20 from Pakistan—in which I know that the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, will be interested. Concentrating its scholarship resources on the two schemes, Marshall for the USA and Chevening for the rest of the world—including, of course, developing and developed Commonwealth countries, too, except the EU—gives the FCO the flexibility to ensure that its scholarships are targeted at those countries which will be most important to its policy goals over the coming years. I emphasise that the Chevening scholarship scheme continues to available to all developed Commonwealth countries, except the two EU members, although the number of scholarships is admittedly lower than under the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Scheme. The department’s decision to stop funding Commonwealth scholarships for developed Commonwealth countries does not reflect any lessening of the Government’s commitment to that institution. We are a proud member of the Commonwealth and we value the opportunity to work closely with the secretariat on a range of issues. We fully support Commonwealth programmes on a range of topics: democracy, human rights, gender, youth, good offices, and the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group. We work closely as a Government with the Secretary-General, Mr Sharma, and his team across these programmes. The Commonwealth is of course about much more than money, but I could read out the contributions that will be paid by the department to the Commonwealth in broad terms during this year. I could also read out the same figures as far as DfID is concerned. I shall not waste the Committee’s time by doing so, but I know that it will accept that the Government and the FCO spend a lot of money on the Commonwealth—and quite right, too. Recent examples where we have collaborated with the secretariat include the Maldives, Pakistan, and Kenya. The Government recognise the excellence of the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan. The Government’s commitment to the whole scheme has increased from nearly £17 million in 2007 to nearly £18 million this year. Next year the Government will give nearly £19 million and in 2010-11 about £18,300,000, as the continuing cost of FCO-funded Commonwealth scholars reduces. That increase is largely because the Department for International Development is increasing its contribution each year up to 2010. It has increased by £1 million this year to nearly £16 million and will increase to nearly £17.5 million in 2009, and then to £17.5 million in 2010. That is the contribution of DfID to this plan. That was what my right honourable friend the Prime Minister promised at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Kampala in November 2007. It reflects the importance the Government attach to helping developing Commonwealth countries. Of all the outstanding speeches, I shall mention two. The noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, talked with great passion about Indian and Pakistani doctors who have done brilliantly in this country, and the noble Lord, Lord Sutherland, talked about South Africa with great affection and skill. We are talking in each of those three cases about developing countries, none of which is part of the eight countries whose scholarships the FCO used to meet. These are developing countries. The criticism that may be made of the Government as regards stopping the £2 million each year for the developed Commonwealth countries is one thing—and the criticism has been well made. But it must be remembered that as regards developing countries the amount of money that will be spent, not by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office but by DfID, which is an associated branch of Her Majesty's Government, is going up, as the Prime Minister promised at Kampala. I would argue that the overall government commitment to Commonwealth scholarships and fellowships will have increased—