Mark Hendrick – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Hendrick on 2014-04-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how much the UK contributed towards the funding of the United Nations and International Monetary Fund in (a) 2011, (b) 2012 and (c) 2013.

Mr David Lidington

The UK makes numerous contributions to the many different parts of the UN system and UN-led activities. Payments come from a wide range of British Government Departments. Our two largest assessed, or mandatory, payments are for the UN Regular Budget and the UN Peacekeeping Budget.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) pays the UK’s share of the UN Regular Budget, which covers core UN Secretariat costs and the UN’s political activities. During the last three calendar years the UK made assessed contributions to the UN Regular Budget in US dollars as follows:

2011 $155.3 million
2012 $156.1 million
2013 $132.0 million

The UN Peacekeeping Budget follows the UN’s financial year (July-June). The UK’s assessed contributions in the last four UN financial years in US dollars were:

2010-11 $602.8 million
2011-12 $576.4 million
2012-13 $477.1 million
2013-14 $476.6 million

The UK, typically through the relevant lead Whitehall department in the appropriate field, also makes many other substantial payments into the UN system. For UN specialised agencies these are mostly voluntary contributions, with some assessed contributions e.g. for core costs. Additionally there are many significant voluntary contributions to UN funds and programmes and other UN bodies depending on how they support UK objectives and priorities. The Department for International Development is the largest contributor of voluntary funding, of all British Government Departments.

The UK does not have an annual subscription to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and does not contribute to its administration costs. These are financed out of the IMF’s own revenue. As per the annual accounts of the National Loan Fund, published to Parliament, the Government’s Quota Subscription and Lending to the IMF at the end of each financial year stood at: