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FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS
Iraq
Mr. Menzies Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will outline the Government's current policy in relation to the reports of the three United Nations panels on Iraq; and if he will make a statement. [80515]
Mr. Fatchett [holding answer 13 April 1999]: The panels' reports form a good basis for Security Council discussion on the way forward on Iraq.
The disarmament panel has endorsed what has long been clear: that UNSCOM has achieved an enormous amount, but that there are still important questions left unanswered. The panel has also stated clearly that Iraq has not fulfilled its obligations. We share the panel's view
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that if the inspectors are to go back into Iraq they will need a system more, not less, intrusive than before.
Iraq's refusal to come clean over its weapons of mass destruction has prevented any movement on sanctions. Compliance with Security Council resolutions is an essential prerequisite for lifting sanctions. Our insistence on Iraq meeting its obligations does not mean we can ignore the suffering of the Iraqi people. We are pleased that the humanitarian panel has picked up many of our proposals on how to improve international efforts to alleviate this suffering, on how to increase the amount of money going into the oil-for-food programme and ensuring it is used as effectively as possible.
Neither should we lose sight of the fate of the Kuwaitis and others still missing since the Gulf War ended in 1991, on which Iraq has remained shamelessly silent. I welcome the third panel's support for the Tripartite Commission chaired by the International Committee of the Red Cross, and echo its call for Iraq to co-operate fully.
Sir Peter Lloyd:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when he intends to publish the annual report on human rights. [80575]
Mr. Tony Lloyd:
The Government's Annual Report on Human Rights for 1999 will be laid before Parliament as a Command Paper by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development during the present Parliamentary session.
Mr. Ben Chapman:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment he has made of efficacy of a shore-based solution for the bulk oil storage arrangements of the Ascension Islands. [79809]
Mr. Doug Henderson:
I have been asked to reply.
Following a review of strategic stock holdings at Ascension Island, my Department is considering the optimum arrangements for the future storage of fuel stocks. As part of this work, we are examining the amount of on-island fuel storage infrastructure currently available, whether additional storage is necessary and whether this can be provided more cost effectively than under present arrangements utilising the chartered vessel MV Maersk Ascension.
Mrs. Browning:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if the advice he has placed in the Library in respect of people travelling to Chechnya was issued to individual visa applicants employed by Granger Telecom or was issued to the company that employed them. [66960]
Mr. Tony Lloyd
[pursuant to his reply, 21 January 1999, c. 536-37]: Granger Telecom have informed FCO officials that as a result of Granger's meeting with
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FCO officials on 21 August 1998, Granger management did not re-consult their field staff about their willingness to work in Chechnya, but Granger Telecom directors discussed the advice given to Granger by the FCO at that meeting. Granger Telecom have reaffirmed that they drew to the attention of their field staff the FCO travel advice for Russia which stated:
Dr. Lynne Jones:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans the Government have to review the legal status of transsexual people. [81107]
Mr. Straw:
My officials will chair an inter-departmental Working Group on transsexuals. This will have the following terms of reference:
I have asked the Group to report its findings to Ministers by Easter 2000.
Mr. Tredinnick:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what studies have been carried out into the effect of withdrawing from prisoners constitutional integrated drug-free medicine received for patterns of addiction, violence and related disturbances; [80137]
(3) when the Prison Service instruction to governors regarding the provision of complementary medical services to prisoners will be issued; who was consulted in formulating this policy; and what assessment he has
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(4) what assessment the Minister of State responsible for Prisons has made of the Institute for the Study and Treatment of Delinquency's report on the complementary medical treatment programme at HM Prison Coldingley; and if he will make a statement. [80167]
Mr. George Howarth:
The report by the Institute for the Study and Treatment of Delinquency provides a general evaluation of the complementary medical treatment pilot at Coldingley and records the broadly positive and supportive views of patients. It makes proposals for improving the organisation of the service and for future research. The report does not provide a detailed assessment of the therapeutic value of all the treatments and practices involved nor of the resource and other implications of continuing the programme or extending it to other prisons.
The Prison Service, recognising the need to establish clear guidelines about the place of complementary therapies alongside conventional health care provided to prisoners, and having consulted the Department of Health, has concluded that only a limited number of complementary therapies of potential benefit to prisoners and prison regimes should be provided in prison, subject to an assessment of health needs and overall budgeting constraints. Provision will have to be on the basis of an assessed health need and in the context of an integrated health improvement plan, as described in the Government's announcement of 29 March 1999, Official Report, columns 556-58, on the future organisation of prison health care. Service providers will be required to show that they operate within accepted professional standards of competence. An instruction will shortly be issued to all Prison Service establishments to explain this policy.
The Prison Service has not carried out research into the effects of limiting the range of complementary therapies.
Mr. Bercow:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list those elements of the Schengen supplementary accords, copies of which his Department had not received at the time of the formal application to join elements of the Schengen system; and if he will make a statement on his plans to place them in the Library. [80398]
Kate Hoey:
As no formal application has yet been made by the Government it is not possible to list those elements of the Schengen supplementary accords copies of which the Home Department had not received at the time of the formal application. The Government will continue to place all further Declarations and Directives of the Schengen Executive Committee in the Library as they are received, where these are not classified.
Mr. Maclean:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to report to the House on the outcome of the Justice and Home Affairs Council of 12 March. [80494]
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Kate Hoey:
I refer the right hon. Member to the reply I gave him on 29 March 1999, Official Report, column 532.
"We strongly advise against travel to the Chechen Republic because of the unstable security situation. Visitors have been kidnapped in these areas recently."
"To consider, with particular reference to birth certificates, the need for appropriate legal measures to address the problems experienced by transsexuals, having due regard to scientific and societal developments, and measures undertaken in other countries to deal with this issue."
Membership:
Department for Education and Employment
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Department of Health
Home Office
Lord Chancellor's Department
Office of Law Reform, Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland General Register Office
Office for National Statistics
Scottish Office
Scottish General Register Office
Department for Social Security
Welsh Office.
(2) what assessment he has made of the constitutional integrated drug-free medical treatment programme established in HMP Coldingley, Feltham and Downview by Complementary Medical Services for Prisoners and the effects reported by prisoners; [80138]
made of the impact it will have on the provision of constitutional drug-free medicine within the prison service; [80166]
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