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Dangerous Personality Disorders
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what representations he has received about his plans for new legal powers to detain people with dangerous personality disorders; and if he will make a statement. [88516]
Mr. Straw: The Government have received a number of informal comments following my statement to the House of Commons on 15 February, Official Report, columns 601-03. We expect to receive more formal comments when the consultation paper setting out our proposals in more detail is issued.
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his oral statement of 15 February 1999, Official Report, columns 601-03, when he plans to publish a consultation document on powers for the detention of people with dangerous personality disorders. [88500]
Mr. Straw: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and I plan to publish a detailed consultation paper on the management of dangerous people with severe personality disorder shortly.
Sex Offenders Register
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the progress and conclusions of his Department's evaluation of the Sex Offenders Register. [88517]
Mr. Boateng: The evaluation of the Sex Offender Register began in August 1998. This is examining how the police are in practice administering the registration requirement, and how effective the Act is considered to be. The evaluation will be available towards the end of this year, at which point we will consider its implications for the effective operation of the Act in the future.
Emergency Planning
Mr. Maclean: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent assessment he has made of emergency planning requirements in Cumbria. [88352]
Mr. George Howarth: None. The assessment of what is required in Cumbria is the responsibility of the local agencies.
For 1999-2000, Cumbria County Council was allocated a £204,288 grant. The Chief Executive was informed on
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26 May that, as a result of the new scheme, this would be reduced to £183,859 for 2000-01 and again to £136,486 for 2001-02.
Civil defence grant has never been provided on the basis of an assessed need for each specific area and is only a contribution towards the total requirement. The new scheme is based on the following rationale:
Mr. Maclean:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proposals he has for the future funding for emergency planning services in (a) England and Wales and (b) Cumbria. [88353]
Mr. George Howarth:
The Home Office provides civil defence grant to eligible local authorities in England and Wales to offset some of the expenditure incurred by them in meeting their civil defence duties. The grant is not intended to meet the full cost of emergency planning services.
The total amount of grant for England and Wales has been set at £14.038 million for this year and the next two years. Cumbria have been allocated £204,288 for 1999-2000, £183,859 for 2000-01 and £136,486 for 2001-02. The reduction is the result of a new mechanism for allocating civil defence grant.
Mr. McNulty:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will make an announcement about the outcome of the consultation exercise seeking views on the proposal to ban the sale of gas lighter refills to people below a certain age. [89020]
Mr. George Howarth:
I intend to make an announcement tomorrow morning.
All 178 grant eligible authorities will receive a basic allocation of £45,000 to ensure a minimum level of service, and the delivery of basic standards of preparedness.
County Councils will receive an allocation of £10,000 for each of the District Councils within the County boundary in recognition of the service that a County must provide to constituent Districts.
Remaining grant after the first two elements have been addressed will be allocated according to Bellwin thresholds. The Bellwin Scheme, operated by the Department for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, sets a level of expenditure above which central Government may contribute to costs incurred by local authorities in responding to a major incident. The use of Bellwin acknowledges the relationship between population size and the work load of emergency planning teams in large areas.
Some work done by local authorities can be charged to outside industry and in Cumbria, for example, the cost of work done with the nuclear industry under specific legislation, can be reclaimed from them.