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Mr. Scott : No, all terminally ill people qualify in that way. The other significant fact about the new benefits is that we will rely far less on medical examinations and more on the assessment of disabled people and their carers when determining the extent of their disability and its effect on their life.
Child Benefit
16. Mr. Rost : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what will be the total value to a two-child family of the three increases in child benefit which will have taken place in the year to April 1992.
Mr. Jack : For a two-child family, those increases will be worth £2.95 a week, taking total child benefit to £17.45 a week. For a family on average income, that is equal to an increase in gross earnings of £1,350 a year.
Mr. Rost : Will my hon. Friend confirm that, as a result of the Government's generous increase in child benefit, our provision now compares favourably with that of many other European countries? For example, will he compare our provision with that of socialist France?
Mr. Jack : Clearly, my hon. Friend has been doing his research extremely well, because in France there is no equivalent to the benefit that we pay for the first child. If the French scheme were to be replicated here, 40 per cent.
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of mothers would not receive child benefit. In several other EC countries, there are extra entitlement conditions. Greece, Germany and Italy have means tests, while Belgium, Italy, Portugal and Spain link eligibility to insurance. My hon. Friend is right to say that our provision is generous.Pensioners
18. Mr. Winnick : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what recent representations he has received regarding the income of pensioners.
Mr. Newton : In the past month, Ministers have met two delegations to discuss issues of general concern to pensioners.
Mr. Winnick : Is the Secretary of State aware of the deep concern and anger that is felt by pensioners? Despite the statement that was made earlier today, they feel that they are being victimised. A large number of pensioners, especially those on income support and just above the income support level, face another winter of struggling daily to make ends meet. The Government should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves because of how those pensioners have lost out as a result of the decision taken in 1980, which resulted in pensions no longer being increased in line with earnings. A married couple has lost out by £24 a week directly as a result of Tory Government action.
Mr. Newton : The hon. Gentleman will acknowledge that the pensioners about whom he is concerned--many Conservative Members share that concern-- have benefited from the successive improvements in income support premiums of the past three years. Some 1 million such pensioners will gain next April from what I announced a few weeks ago, either directly through extra income support or through the effect of increased housing benefit or community charge benefit. I am not ashamed of that ; I am glad that we have been able to do more to help those pensioners and I hope that we can continue to do so.
ATTORNEY-GENERAL
Deliberate Injustice
27. Mr. John Browne : To ask the Attorney-General if there are any restrictions upon his ability to investigate a case of alleged deliberate injustice.
The Attorney-General (Sir Patrick Mayhew) : I do not have investigatory powers of the sort referred to by my hon. Friend.
Mr. Browne : What advice would my right hon. and learned Friend give to those seeking appeal under clause 5 of article 14 of the United Nations international convention on civil and political rights, especially where a quite deliberate injustice has been perpetrated by senior Government Ministers intent on injustice to a Member of a sovereign Parliament by misleading that Parliament?
Mr. Speaker : Order. The hon. Gentleman cannot accuse a Minister of misleading the House.
Mr. Browne : I withdraw the words "senior Government Ministers" and say, certain persons.
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The Attorney-General : No, Sir. I do not give advice on abstract questions. If my hon. Friend's ingenious question were to induce me to comment on proceedings that are wholly a matter for the House, that would be wrong.
Prosecution Delays
28. Mr. John Marshall : To ask the Attorney-General what proposals he has to reduce the time between individuals being arrested and their being prosecuted.
The Solicitor-General (Sir Nicholas Lyell) : The detailed recommendations of the working group on pre-trial issues and the recently announced plan for their implementation incorporate proposals that are intended to reduce delays throughout the criminal justice system.
Mr. Marshall : Is my right hon. and learned Friend aware that Mr. Leslie Huckfield was acquitted some three years after he was first charged? Is not that a case of justice delayed, justice denied? Will my right hon. and learned Friend assure us that relatively simple cases will be dealt with speedily?
The Solicitor-General : I am glad to assure my hon. Friend that relatively simple cases will be speeded up, particularly when the costed action plan for the recommendations of the working group on pre-trial issues comes into effect. The case that he mentioned arose only after detailed investigations by the police on a much wider series of matters.
Mr. Flynn : Will the Solicitor-General examine the delays in prosecutions, particularly the case of Mr. Don Stewart, who phoned me this morning and who is a frightened man? He was held hostage in a car for 24 hours and shot at the end of that period. He has discovered in the past few days that the man who committed the alleged offence is now on bail. Will the Solicitor-General look at that extraordinary series of events and ensure that we speed up the systems of prosecution and sentencing to prevent such incidents from occurring?
The Solicitor-General : Problems of offences being committed while people are on bail are very much in the forefront of the minds of all those involved with the criminal justice system.
City Fraud
29. Mr. Skinner : To ask the Attorney-General if he will make a statement on recent initiatives by the Serious Fraud Office in connection with City fraud.
The Attorney-General : The SFO has continued its work of investigating and prosecuting serious and complex fraud. Its objectives are to increase the efficiency of the criminal justice system in this regard, to deter fraud and to maintain confidence in our financial systems.
Mr. Skinner : Will the Attorney-General draw the attention of the SFO to the fact that just round the corner at Westminster city council there has been another allegation of serious fraud involving a charity called the Foundation for Business Responsibilities. The £100,000 plus received from big business and Tories in the City was used, not for charity --although the contributions were probably set off against tax--but to keep control of key marginal wards in Westminister council. It seems odd that
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Lady Porter and her cronies on Westminster council can do as they like with the Government and the SFO--they seem to have got away with the cemeteries episode and now are involved in another big scam. While Labour councils are surcharged and kicked out of public office, Lady Porter and her cronies get away with blue murder. Why does not the Attorney-General have an investigation?The Attorney-General : The hon. Gentleman does not need me to tell him, because I have told him about six times already this Parliament, that if there is evidence of criminal behaviour in any quarter it should be drawn to the attention of the police. It is due to a Conservative Government's initiative that we now have a specialist office with powers to investigate and prosecute serious and complex fraud which has brought highly effective results. The hon. Gentleman seems to find it impossible to forgive that.
Mr. Hind : Does my right hon. and learned Friend agree that the SFO is extremely effective? By far the highest number of prosecutions brought to a successful outcome at the Old Bailey are connected with fraud. Does my right hon. and learned Friend agree that the extra powers of the SFO have resulted in those convictions? Long may the SFO continue to get to the bottom of many of the complex frauds which the hon. Member for Bolsover (Mr. Skinner) wants us to look at.
The Attorney-General : I agree entirely with my hon. Friend that the powers that Parliament has given the SFO were necessary and are being well used in the interests of justice. The SFO is greatly admired in many other countries ; people come here to find out how it goes about its business and what powers it has. It sets an example which is being widely followed and co-operates effectively with other organisations overseas. It is a success story of which the House can be proud.
Mr. Fraser : Will the Attorney-General reconsider his dismissive answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Bolsover (Mr. Skinner) about what has been described in the quality papers as the Porter slush fund? Does not the Attorney-General have special responsibility, first, as a Tory, secondly, as the person who supervises prosecutions and, thirdly, as the Minister with responsibility for charities? Does he agree that probity, like charity, should begin at home? Will he set in hand an investigation into whether charitable funds were improperly used in Westminster to influence election results in favour of the Conservative party? Will he at least undertake to the House that he will set in hand that investigation?
The Attorney-General : If my reply to the hon. Member for Bolsover (Mr. Skinner) was dismissive, it was because it is right to dismiss bald assertions of crime when no investigation has been carried out. If there are matters that should be investigated by the police, the police should be told of them.
Mr. Tony Banks : It was on the front page of The Observer.
The Attorney-General : Then that is the answer to the hon. Members for Bolsover and for Norwood (Mr. Fraser). There is no desire on the part of the Government,
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the prosecuting authorities or myself, holding responsibility for the interests of charities, that anything improper should be covered up. That has always been so and it will continue to be so.Legal Aid
30. Mr. Robert G. Hughes : To ask the Attorney-General what assessment he has made of the care with which public money is spent on legal aid and of the adequacy with which records are kept of its disbursement.
The Solicitor-General : Legal aid payments are subject to control by the courts, known as taxation, and to internal and external independent audit. Records are kept or destroyed in accordance with Public Record Office guidelines.
Mr. Hughes : Does my right hon. and learned Friend share my concern that when it is alleged that a bill paid by legal aid is billed for privately by a solicitor, no one can determine whether that is true or investigate whether it is true? Even if such investigations are carried out, the records are destroyed--even if a Member of Parliament has taken up the matter. One of my constituents is in precisely that predicament and no one can give me a clear answer about whether there has been double billing.
The Solicitor-General : My hon. Friend has been looking with great care at the problem of his constituent. The problem has been examined by the solicitors complaints bureau, the solicitors disciplinary tribunal and, quite independently, by the new legal services om-budsman, who found no improper activity.
OVERSEAS DEVELOPMENT
Debt Write-off
36. Mr. Speller : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what effect the write-off of outstanding debt to third world countries will have on his plans for aid to Africa.
The Minister for Overseas Development (Mrs. Lynda Chalker) : The statement of my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister at Harare that we are to reduce the official debts of the poorest, most heavily indebted countries by around two thirds is greatly welcomed by eligible countries. The granting of Trinidad terms will significantly enhance the overall level of United Kingdom support for the poorest countries, especially those in Africa.
Mr. Speller : Does my right hon. Friend accept that not only have certain countries been helped by this great relief but it has done a great deal for the reputation of this country, which has removed an unbearable burden from countries overburdened by debt to the advanced world? Will she press for countries in west Africa such as Nigeria and Ghana to be included among those with great needs and with great expectations of this Government?
Mrs. Chalker : I thank my hon. Friend. The cost to the United Kingdom of the two thirds write-off will be more than £500 million, which will therefore greatly benefit the nations that come under the Trinidad terms. We believe
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that Nigeria should be eligible for debt relief ; we continue to argue her case in the Paris Club. Her official debt stands at about $12 billion.Mr. Pike : In view of rapidly changing circumstances, including writing off certain debts and the ending of apartheid in South Africa, what priority is the Minister allocating to the educational needs of black people in South Africa to help them meet the challenges ahead once apartheid is ended?
Mrs. Chalker : The whole world knows that black people in South Africa are owed education. We have concentrated our help in South Africa on education and we shall continue to do so. But now at last there is help from the South African Government for black South Africans. It is not yet enough, but they have started well and they intend to continue, so that debt to people is being assisted by British aid, too.
Mr. Rowe : There can be no one in the aid world who does not appreciate my right hon. Friend's assiduity and the tremendous practicality with which she tried to skew aid programmes to practical purposes. Will she assure us that when giving aid to developing countries in Africa, she will do all in her power to prevent the Governments of those countries from looking for sophisticated pieces of equipment and machinery which are far beyond the capacity of the people in those countries to use and to stimulate and support simple, practical courses of the kind which at the moment are, incongruously, run at the Institute of Child Health in London when they should be run in Africa?
Mrs. Chalker : I thank my hon. Friend for his comments, with which I sympathise. Over the past two and a half years I have taken a great deal of interest in diverting, so to speak, the former big projects to small, local -level projects. I know about the work of the Institute of Child Health and warmly commend it, as I commend the work of many other British specialist institutes. With our non-governmental organisations, they provide some of the most effective ways in which to give help to the poorest people who so desperately need it.
Voluntary Agencies
38. Mr. Wareing : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations he has received from voluntary agencies on aid policy over the last month.
Mrs. Chalker : I maintain regular contacts with voluntary agencies in the aid field and these frequently include exchanges of views on policy.
Mr. Wareing : Is the right hon. Lady aware that many voluntary agencies are greatly concerned that after years during which the Government refused to give any assistance whatever to the people of Cambodia, only a miserly £5 million has gone from the Government recently? Tragically, people in that country are still being wounded and killed by the 3 million to 4 million land mines which it is estimated are still there. Countries such as ours, which have been much at fault in not giving assistance to Cambodia, now need to make a real effort.
Mrs. Chalker : The hon. Gentleman is aware that until the ceasefire and the peace negotiations were completed,
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we were limited in what we could do. We were already working through the NGOs before that, but now we can work much better. We have already opened a diplomatic mission and we are contributing officers to the United Nations advance mission in Cambodia and making a substantial contribution to the cost of the UN presence. In aid terms, not only are we supporting the co-ordination of the donors' assistance, but we are giving £2 million towards the cost of repatriation of people in the camps along the Thai-Cambodia border and £3 million for the new World Health Organisation programme to combat the spread of malaria and other diseases and posting an experienced aid administrator to Phnom Penh. We are making available from the Department a senior medical adviser who is a Khmer speaker to the WHO office in Phnom Penh. We have already told the Cambodians that we shall establish an in-country English language training facility to help train their officials and others involved in reconstruction and redevelopment work and we shall continue our financial support for the humanitarian assistance programmes of the British NGOs. That is no small order for a country which has only just got its peace agreement.Mr. Lester : Does my right hon. Friend agree that the policy of voluntary agencies assisting in Vietnam has been very helpful to the Government and that many voluntary agencies are now establishing offices in Hanoi to carry out programmes that will do something about the abject poverty in that country and so end the dreadful plight of the boat people?
Mrs. Chalker : My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Vietnam certainly needs a great deal of assistance. Vietnam has recently shown improvements in human rights and we can certainly assist such countries. We are glad that there are no reports of human rights abuses against returned boat people to whom we are giving specialist settlement help. I am sure that, as our NGOs develop in Vietnam, more can be done through our joint funding scheme to assist them.
Mr. Campbell-Savours : On the question of good governance criteria in the allocation of aid, do the principles that the right hon. Lady set out in her reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Cynon Valley (Mrs. Clwyd) apply equally to Indonesia? Will she answer yes or no?
Mrs. Chalker : I am well aware of the great anxiety in the House about Indonesia. Only a couple of days ago on 13 November at the European Community Ministers meeting we expressed our grave concern about the situation in East Timor and one of my diplomatic wing colleagues saw the Indonesian ambassador. Of course, good government applies to Indonesia as well and we shall be doing everything that we can to change those aspects in the most encouraging way, because there is much to be done.
Third World Countries
39. Dr. Godman : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions he has held, in the past month, with his European Community ministerial colleagues concerning aid to third world countries.
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Mrs. Chalker : I last met my EC ministerial colleagues at an informal Development Council at Apeldoorn in the Netherlands in July. I shall meet them again at the Development Council in Brussels next week.Dr. Goodman : Is the European Community providing any assistance by way of NGOs to the many impoverished people in Tibet? Is not such assistance desperately needed in that occupied country and would not the best way to achieve such fine ends be through the NGOs?
Mrs. Chalker : It is perfectly true that in countries like Tibet and others where it is difficult to give assistance to the ordinary people at village level, the NGO route is by far the best one to follow. I cannot tell the hon. Gentleman whether the EC is putting money through its NGOs to Tibet, but I shall write to him with an answer.
Rain Forests
42. Mr. Jacques Arnold : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on progress with British initiatives to assist the preservation of the tropical rain forest.
Mrs. Chalker : The Government's essential aim is to help promote sustainable management of tropical forests and their biodiversity. We have increased our bilateral activities and encouraged multilaterals to do likewise and we are active in preparations for the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Brazil next June.
Mr. Arnold : Given the expertise to be found at Kew gardens, in the Oxford Forestry Institute and elsewhere, could my right hon. Friend tell us about the measures being taken to ensure that that expertise is brought to bear, particularly in the Amazon basin?
Mrs. Chalker : Yes, but if I went into this at length, you might censor me, Mr. Speaker, so I shall not. However, I can say that the royal botanical gardens at Kew, the Oxford Forestry Institute and many other excellent British academic institutions are fully engaged in our programme in South America and I hope that the G7 forestry initiative will mean that more projects come to the excellent British institutions that are already giving help. Some 185 projects are already under progress at a potential cost to our programme of £109 million.
Kurdish People
The following Questions stood upon the Paper :--
34. Mr. Harry Barnes : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when he last met the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to discuss aid for the Kurdish people.
35. Mr. Corbyn : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how much Government aid has gone to Kurdish people since April of this year ; what information he has on the amount of aid from United Kingdom non-governmental organisations ; and if he will make a statement.
Mrs. Chalker : I held discussions in Geneva last week on the situation in Iraq with Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, the United Nations Secretary-General's executive delegate, and senior officials from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the League of Red Cross and
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Red Crescent Societies, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International Organisation of Migration and the United Nations Disaster Relief Co-ordinator. I heard of the considerable efforts being made by those agencies to relieve humanitarian need in Iraq and was able to discuss with them how best we might continue to assist the needs of ordinary Iraqis.The British Government have played their full part. Since April this year, we have spent £44 million to help the people of Iraq, including over £6 million through United Kingdom non-governmental organisations, £500,000 through Iraqi humanitarian groups and £2.5 million through the ICRC. Britain maintains a contribution to the coalition force in southern Turkey which is continuing to deter any renewed repression by the Iraqi authorities.
Iraq is able to and should meet the basic requirements of all its own people. The Security Council adopted two mandatory resolutions, 706 and 712, on 15 August and 19 September. They permit the export of some $1.6 billion of Iraqi oil to meet humanitarian needs. This oil could and should already be flowing, but Saddam Hussein refuses to implement the resolutions. He is clearly using the suffering, especially of women and children, for his own cynical purposes. Prince Sadruddin leaves for Iraq tomorrow to make progress on these points. I have given him my full support for this vital United Nations task. I am sure that he will have the full support of the whole House. Britain will continue to play her full part in alleviating suffering in Iraq. The last months have proved that the international community is more concerned for the people of Iraq than are their own Government.
Mr. Barnes : What estimates have been made of the needs of the Kurds and how much of the material that has been made available to them has been able to get through? What protections are available? What is the latest information about the field hospital that was sent out by British Aid for the Kurds?
It is a pity that we did not know that a statement was to be made generally about Iraq rather than in response to the two questions that have been tabled about the Kurds, Nos. 34 and 35. There is much wider concern and I am one of those who would wish to see trade being opened up with Iraq so that a devastated country can begin to be repaired.
Mrs. Chalker : It is extremely difficult, as the hon. Member for Cynon Valley (Mrs. Clwyd) knows as well as I do, to obtain a full estimate of what is needed. I can say that there is great need and that in certain pockets the situation is disastrous. That is so in the north and it is also the position of the Shias in the marshland in the south, as my hon. Friend the Member for Torridge and Devon, West (Miss Nicholson) can testify. Therefore, the need is still great. I made that point with considerable emphasis to Prince Sadruddin and to others whom I met in Geneva last week.
We can protect and, by means of our troops in southern Turkey, deter the recurrence of the awful things that seem to have happened in the past. We have no doubt that medicines that have been sent from Britain and many other countries have been blockaded by the Revolutionary Guard somewhere in Iraq. We know also that other materials have not yet got through but have been sent. We are doing all that we can to unblock the situation and to overcome the problem. That does not absolve Saddam
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Hussein of the responsibility for looking after his own people. There is his agreement--well, not agreement because the United Nations resolutions are mandatory--when he permits the oil to flow. As soon as that happens, the people of Iraq will benefit and will cease to suffer in the disastrous way that they have for so long.Mr. Corbyn : The Minister will be aware that I visited Kurdish Iraq in August to see for myself the destruction that had taken place. The right hon. Lady has been informed of the observations that I and others made at that time. It is clear that there is an urgent need for aid to get through to the Kurdish people. What was bad in August is terrible now and it will be appalling in the middle of winter. An urgent supply of aid is desperately needed--medicines, food and building equipment, for example, to assist the Kurdish people. When I was in Kurdish Iraq I felt that many of the aid agencies should have more confidence in working with the Kurdistan Front in the supply of aid and food to the villages and towns and in co- operating with logistical support. Those in the Kurdistan Front know the region best. They have always lived there and they are best able to advise on appropriate aid.
My final point--
Mr. Corbyn : My last concern, which is of great importance--
Mr. Speaker : There are others who want to participate.
Mr. Corbyn : I appreciate that, Mr. Speaker.
Unless the Turkish army and air force desist from attacks over the border into Iraq, the security of the Kurdish people is once again threatened, not only by Saddam Hussein but by the Turkish air force.
Mrs. Chalker : To clear up the last point first, we made it clear to the Government of Turkey that the people of northern Iraq and the Kurdish people of southern Turkey should not be treated as was seen to be happening some months ago. There has been no difference between us on that.
The hon. Member for Islington, North (Mr. Corbyn) has been in the area, as have others. There is justified concern about the Kurds facing the threat of this winter. The hon. Member for Cynon Valley has seen the position for herself.
We have been concentrating on pushing through food, shelter facilities and health care to try to avert the tragedy of the mountains, but no single Government or group of NGOs can make things happen if the Revolutionary Guard is stockpiling equipment and necessary food. Prince Sadruddin is going to Baghdad tomorrow to try to solve that problem. We send our best wishes with him ; but I assure the House that we shall not let up in our attempts to help Iraqi people in both the north and south.
Miss Emma Nicholson : I thank my right hon. Friend from the bottom of my heart, on behalf of those whom I have seen in southern Iran who are refugees from Saddam Hussein's brutality against the Shia people. I thank her even more warmly for the help that she gave, in the form of food and clothing, to people who fled into the marshes. Their plight is desperate. I saw them recently in the marshes of southern Iraq and I hope to bring over one or
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two of the smallest victims of Saddam Husseim's brutal napalm bombing--in particular a boy of 10, who needs crucial plastic surgery.May I ask my right hon. Friend to endorse--
Mr. Speaker : Order. Will hon. Members please ask one question at a time? If not, they take a good deal of time from others.
Miss Nicholson : Tomorrow, the findings will be released of the interim report from Mr. Max van der Stoel, the special United Nations rapporteur on human rights in Iraq, who will present the report to the United Nations third committee. Will my right hon. Friend endorse those findings and make every effort to endorse the resolution, proposed by Belgium, which Mr. van der Stoel will present?
Mrs. Chalker : I am sure that we shall see almost total aggreement with Mr. van der Stoel's report when it is published tomorrow. I have not seen the report yet, but my hon. Friend knows me well enough to realise that we shall use the opportunity offered by it to do all that we can to further help for people in southern Iraq and those in camps in the south- west and other parts of Iran.
The situation is serious. We shall continue to support NGOs in southern Iraq and in the camps in the south-west. I congratulate my hon. Friend not only on the work that she has done, but on going to the marshes of southern Iraq and coming back with the evidence. It took some courage to do that.
Mr. Cormack : What my right hon. Friend has said this afternoon about the activities of Saddam Hussein and his lackeys in the Revolutionary Guard makes many of us extremely ashamed that no attempt has been made to bring this bestial, malevolent, satanic figure to the bar of world opinion, either by seeking to bring charges against him or by forcing him into exile. Cannot something be done? Men's lives were lost in the Gulf war. A war was fought and to what purpose?
Mrs. Chalker : The freeing of Kuwait was the objective set by the United Nations. That was successfully accomplished with--thank goodness--a minimal, although sad, loss of life.
It is extremely difficult to speculate about what will happen next. I understand my hon. Friend's grave and deeply felt anxiety and the wish of all the British people that Saddam Hussein be brought to justice. It is not in the British Government's power to do that ; we must continue to work through the United Nations. I assure my hon. Friend that the Government will do that with all the force at their disposal.
Sir David Steel : The Minister will have seen all the independent reports--including that of Reuters news agency--of deliberate attempts to prevent fuel, medicine and food from reaching Kurdish areas. The reports include a remarkable quotation from the health minister in Baghdad, who, tacitly, more or less admitted that that was happening.
Did the Minister discuss with Prince Sadruddin the possibility of staging a United Nations airlift of supplies, aimed directly at the area and paying for it with the frozen Iraqi funds that are in our banks?
Mrs. Chalker : Prince Sadruddin and I have indeed discussed the issue and we shall continue to discuss it when
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