Sections:
Freedom of Information Act 2000, request no.
F2008/068
Date of release: 30 April 2008
NDPBs, Executive Agencies and Investment Funds
Information on DFID’s NDPBs, Executive Agencies and Investment Funds.
DFID has no Executive Agencies or Investment Funds. DFID currently has only one NDPB, the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission (CSC). Gareth Thomas is the DFID Minister with responsibility for CSC. There are 15 Commissioners (including a chair) who are appointed by the Secretary of State for International Development. They are not paid for this work but receive a small honorarium.
The Commission’s mandate is derived from the 2002 International Development Act. The main role of the Commission is to manage the United Kingdom’s contribution to the international Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan (CSFP). The CSFP provides a framework through which governments of Commonwealth countries can offer scholarships and fellowships to citizens of other member states. The CSC is administered on DFID’s behalf by the Association of Commonwealth Universities with assistance from the British Council. The projected DFID contribution in 2008-09 is £15.93m.
DFID expenditure in recent years was as follows:
Financial Year |
Expenditure |
2005/06 |
£12,168,233 |
2006/07 |
£15,777,032 |
2007/08 |
£16,248,174 |
Further information
DFID was also responsible up to 31 March 2008 for the Crown Agents Holding and Realisations Board, an NDPB which was wound up on 1 April 2008.
Although DFID has no Investment Funds as such, you may wish to note that DFID
is the sponsor department for CDC Group plc (CDC), a self-financing Public
Corporation and Actis llp, a fund management company. Copies of the CDC Annual
Report and Accounts for 2006 are publicly available on 
CDC's website and are also available from Companies House.
The 2007 Annual Report and Accounts will shortly be available from Companies House, once it has been signed off by the auditors. CDC is a government-owned plc which operates as a fund-of-funds. It commits its capital to investment funds, which invests in private enterprises in poor countries. It is owned by the Department of International Development (DFID) from which it has not received any funding since 1996. In 2007, CDC employed 30 staff.
Actis Capital LLP is a limited liability partnership in which DFID has a 40% interest. Copies of the Report of the Members and Consolidated Financial Statements of Actis Capital LLP are available from Companies House. The average number of people employed during 2006 was 184. Actis has not received any funding from DFID.
DFID does not hold details of their budgets for 2007/08 or 2008/09. The DFID Minister responsible is Shahid Malik MP.
DFID’s ownership interest in these bodies is recognised in our accounts as
fixed asset investments. You can find more on this in our Resource Accounts for
2005-06 and
2006-07.
You will also see from the Resource Accounts that DFID’s fixed asset investments include the United Kingdom interest in certain International Financial Institutions (IFIs).
Resource Accounts for 2007-08 are still being prepared and will be available on our website when published this summer.