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Israel
23. Mr. John Marshall: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement about relations between Britain and Israel. [18319]
Mr. Rifkind: They are excellent, as demonstrated by the recent state visit of President Weizman.
Mr. Marshall: I thank my right hon. and learned Friend for welcoming the recent visit by the Israeli President, during which the President offered a reciprocal invitation to Her Majesty the Queen. Many hope that that invitation will be accepted in the near future.
Mr. Rifkind: We are delighted that the President's state visit was so successful. Reciprocal state visits are considered with great care and sensitivity. I note my hon. Friend's remarks.
Mr. Faulds: May I preface my question with an apology for turning up so late for foreign affairs questions? As you will recall, Madam Speaker, I have been an assiduous attender for many years. I have the best excuse in the world: I was entertaining to luncheon one of the most distinguished cultural figures in Britain, to whom the nation should be deeply grateful. I do not wish to publicise my name along with his. I am a mite in the cultural world; this chap is a magnifico.
May I now take up the point made in the question? The last thing we need now is good relations between Britain and Israel. The Israeli Government have behaved
disgracefully in trying to pay no attention whatever to the Oslo agreements. Is it not time that the British Government made strong representations to President Clinton to the effect that there is no hope whatever of peace in the middle east for as long as the American Zionist lobby runs American foreign policy?
Mr. Rifkind:
The hon. Gentleman can best be described as a magnificent mite. I think that that covers all the qualities that he has displayed for many years.
Let me deal with the hon. Gentleman's substantive question. Of course we are conscious of the great concern about the current state of the peace process, but I think that the hon. Gentleman was unfair in reaching his conclusion. There have been important and beneficial developments--the Hebron agreement, the release of female Palestinian prisoners and a number of other developments. Nevertheless, we share the fear, especially in the light of the recent Har Homa announcement, that that could involve a serious setback for the process. We hope that the Israelis will consider carefully before implementing the decision that was announced recently.
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Madam Speaker: I undertook yesterday to make a statement about the use of electronic devices by Members in the Chamber. I have previously ruled that Members who carry such devices which make a noise should make certain that they turn off the audio function of the instrument before coming into the Chamber. I can have no objection to instruments that merely vibrate so as to attract the attention of the bearer. Clearly, many Members carry such instruments, and they can serve a useful and unobtrusive purpose.
Yesterday, an hon. Member used an electronic device to raise a point of order. He appeared to be receiving information on a small screen--[Laughter.] I did not think that hon. Members found it so amusing yesterday. He appeared to be receiving information on a small screen, relayed to him from outside the Chamber. I strongly deprecate such practices. For any Member to be prompted in that way by an outside group is totally unacceptable.
I am aware that various kinds of such instruments exist, and that, carried in handbag or wallet or even on the wrist, they can provide the owner with useful information. Provided that they are silent, I can have no objection to such devices--and, even if I had an objection, I do not see how I could prevent Members from bringing them into the Chamber. I am not, however, prepared to accept the use of such instruments as an aide memoire by a Member who is addressing the House. Similar considerations apply to earpieces that are used to receive messages. In future, I shall order a Member who is seen to be indulging in such a practice to resume his or her seat immediately. That rule will be applied in Committees of the House as well as in the Chamber.
For the avoidance of doubt, I should make it clear that nothing that I have said is intended to affect Members with a declared disability who may require technical support to carry out their duties. Their requirements will be individually determined in the light of their particular circumstances.
Mr. Dafydd Wigley (Caernarfon):
On a point of order, Madam Speaker--on that point.
The Secretary of State for Health (Mr. Stephen Dorrell):
With permission, Madam Speaker, I should like to make a statement about the Government's White Paper on the future of social services in England and Wales.
Local authority social service departments were created in roughly their present form in 1971. They are responsible for social care services for a wide variety of people, among them elderly people, those with physical or learning disabilities and mentally ill people, as well as children who would otherwise be at risk of neglect or abuse. The many local authority members, directors and staff who over that long period have built those services deserve credit for what has been achieved.
The Government believe that the growing size and importance of social service departments make necessary a major reassessment of their role and structure. Today's White Paper sets out a package of proposals for the reform of social service provision. The Government will implement those proposals in a social services reform Bill that we shall introduce early in the next Parliament.
Social service departments currently combine three responsibilities that sit uneasily together: first, they assess care needs and use public money to commission care; secondly, they provide directly a range of social care services; and, thirdly, they regulate private and voluntary sector providers of social care services. The centrepiece of the Government's social services reform Bill will be the separation of those three functions.
The Bill will provide that social service departments should in future concentrate on their role as assessors of care need and commissioners of care services. It will require each social service authority to publish separate accounts for its assessment and commissioning function, and it will provide for the making of secondary legislation that will set out the quality and value-for-money issues on which social service departments will be required to publish performance indicators. Those indicators will allow council tax payers to examine the performance of their own social service department and to compare its performance with that of other equivalent departments.
The Bill will also amend the power of social service authorities to provide social care services. At present, social service authorities have a general power to provide such social care services as they think fit to meet local needs. The Government propose to amend that power to provide that, in respect of residential and domiciliary services for adults, the power can be used only when an authority can show that direct provision of service by the local authority is necessary to meet a need that cannot be met locally by the non-statutory sector.
The legislation will require formal reviews of existing direct provision for adults to be conducted periodically by each authority; those reviews will be transparent and the views of local interested parties will be sought. The law will place a strong and clear onus of proof on authorities wishing to retain existing direct provision or to expand their commitment to directly provided services. The criteria against which the review will have to be carried out will be set out in regulations.
The third element of the social services reform Bill will be a new structure for the regulation of social care and nursing home provision. The Government believe that it
is important that that function is separated from others currently carried out by social service departments. We also believe that the standards that are required by regulation should be applied to both public and private sector provision, and that separate regulation of care homes by health and social service authorities, which can currently lead to wasteful duplication of effort, should be brought to an end.
The legislation will therefore require local health and social service authorities to create joint statutory bodies in each area, with membership drawn from the participating authorities. Those bodies will regulate both the social care services now regulated by local authorities and the nursing homes currently regulated by health authorities. The scope of regulation will be extended to cover private sector domiciliary and day care services and small children's homes, as well as the public sector social care services that are currently free of regulation. Health authorities will continue to regulate private hospitals and certain other specialist health facilities, as they do now.
The creation of a single regulatory authority for social care raises the question whether it is right to maintain the legal division of adult care homes into residential homes and nursing homes. The Government see the attraction of moving towards a single category, in which each care home would be assessed and licensed according to the needs of the clientele it is intended to serve. That more flexible structure would make it easier for people who become more dependent to move to a different level of care without having to move to a different care home. The details of such a change will need full assessment, and the Government will consult further on those issues.
In addition to those important changes to the structure of social service departments, today's White Paper takes forward some other important aspects of social service provision. Under the Children Act 1989, the child's welfare is the paramount consideration. The Government believe that that is the correct focus. They do not believe, however, that emphasising the wishes of the individual child should be allowed to become an excuse for distorting the proper relationship between children and adults. We should not blindly ascribe to all children the capacity to make mature decisions about their interests, which are the proper responsibility of adults.
The chief inspector of social services in England recently issued revised guidance to the managers of children's homes, which underlined their responsibility to provide a disciplined framework for the lives of children in their care. The Government will continue to monitor the operation of the Children Act 1989, and they will act again if it can be demonstrated that there is a need to reassert the proper balance between the rights of the child and the responsibilities of adults.
The social services reform Bill will also place a new obligation on the local authority collectively, not just on the social service department, to prepare a full children's services plan. Those plans will be required to show how social services, education, health and housing authorities, as well as the juvenile justice system, will co-operate to identify children who are at risk and to take the action necessary to safeguard their interests.
Finally, on children's services, the White Paper sets out the Government's intention to improve the training provided to social workers who work with children. The Government believe that social workers who undertake that most difficult area of work with children should receive specialist training, as do approved social workers who are entrusted with powers under the mental health legislation.
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