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7 Nov 2002 : Column 642W—continued
Malaysia
Jeremy Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations have been made to the Government of Malaysia concerning the operation of the Internal Security Act and its compliance with international legal norms; and if he will make a statement. [79648]
Mike O'Brien: EU Heads of Diplomatic Missions in Kuala Lumpur raised this issue with the Malaysian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Syed Hamid, on 17 May 2001. We also regularly express our concerns about the use of the Internal Security Act with the Malaysian High Commission in London.
Jeremy Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations have been made to the Government of Malaysia concerning the imprisonment of the former Deputy Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim; and if he will make a statement. [79647]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: Our views on Anwar Ibrahim's continuing imprisonment were expressed in an EU statement of 12 July 2002. That statement recalled our deep concern about the fairness of the trial and expressed disappointment that the verdict had been upheld on final appeal. Our High Commissioner has also discussed this issue with Malaysian ministers.
National Missile Defence
Jeremy Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent meetings have been held with the US Deparments of (a)
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State and (b) Defense on the United Kingdom's contribution to national missile defence; and if he will make a statement. [79651]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: Missile defence issues are discussed regularly in the course of official UK/US contacts. It remains the case that there has been no formal US request for the use of UK facilities for missile defence purposes. If a request is received, the Government will consider it. But the Government would only agree to use of UK facilities if satisfied that the overall security of the UK and NATO would be enhanced.
Bermuda
Mr. Gale: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he has taken to ensure that the Boundary Commission in Bermuda has properly discharged its duty to invite representations from the public relating to proposals to change Bermuda's electoral system. [79867]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: The Constituency Boundaries Commission invited the public to express views and attend meetings through widely advertised notices in the press and on the radio in Bermuda. Everyone had an opportunity to attend. Meetings were held in four different places, including the capital Hamilton.
Sikhs
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations have been received by Her Majesty's Government from the Indian Government concerning the separate ethnic monitoring of British Sikhs in the United Kingdom. [80367]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: We have not received any representations from the Indian Government regarding the separate ethnic monitoring of British Sikhs.
Zimbabwe
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what reports he has received on the sale by the wife of the Zimbabwe National Army Commander, of crops seized from Chakoma Estates in Goromonji to United Kingdom supermarkets; and if he will make a statement. [80061]
Mr. Rammell: Mrs. Chiwenga's involvement with Chakoma Estates has been reported in both the UK and Zimbabwe media. We have no additional information about the sale of the company's produce to UK supermarkets.
Anglo-French Summit
Mr. Spring: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1) which country first proposed an Anglo-French Summit to take place in the last three months of this year; [79963]
- (2) when a place for an Anglo-French summit in the last three months of this year was agreed; [79962]
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(3) when and by whom it was suggested that an Anglo-French summit scheduled to take place in the last three months of this year should be postponed or cancelled; and if he will make a statement on current arrangements on the summit. [79961]
Mr. MacShane: UK-French Summits have taken place roughly annually for over 25 years. The venue alternates between UK and France. It was France's turn to host this year and consequently for them to propose a date. They originally proposed 3 December, but have since postponed to allow more time for preparation. We look forward to receiving a new date.
UK Consulates (California)
Mr. Wyatt: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment he has made of the impact on the (a) diplomatic and (b) business role of the United Kingdom Consulates in California on the creation of five separate regional development agency offices in that state. [79921]
Mr. Rammell: There have been no formal assessments of the impact on the Consulates in California of the local Regional Development Agency (RDA) offices. However, if an RDA wishes to open a new (or expand an existing) overseas office, it is required to present a business case for prior approval by my noble Friend the Baroness Symons, and by the Consulate General.
Although the RDAs have no diplomatic remit, their presence can strengthen the FCO's public diplomacy effort, for example, when issues arise concerning a particular area of the UK (e.g. Northern Ireland).
Our Consulates in California have a good relationship with the RDAs, and integrate their business activities where practicable. To ensure there is no ''double handling'', the inward investment activity of the RDAs is regulated by the Committee on Overseas Promotion Guidelines, which require them to notify the relevant Post in advance before visiting companies within the Post's area of responsibility.
Charter of Fundamental Rights
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if it is his policy to make the Charter of Fundamental Rights enforceable in law. [78869]
Mr. MacShane: The Charter is a political declaration. The Government strongly supports it. People need to know their rights and the EU institutions need to respect them.
The Government has always maintained that there are legal and practical problems linked to giving the text as its stands legal status. The Laeken European Council mandated the participants in the Future of Europe Convention to consider the Charter's status. We have worked hard in the Convention's Charter Working Group to find solutions to the issues of legal certainty that would need to be resolved before the UK could consider a change in the Charter's status.
In looking at the Charter's status, two key aspects of the existing text must be maintained: that the Charter is addressed to the Institutions and the Member States only to the extent they are implementing Union law; and
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that the Charter creates no new power or tasks for the EC and does not modify powers or tasks defined by the Treaties.
The Government welcomes the Working Group's final report, including some of the technical amendments the group recommends, as a basis for further work on the Charter's status. Any decision on the future status of the Charter will be taken by Heads of Government at an IGC.
PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL
European Scrutiny
Miss McIntosh: To ask the President of the Council, what plans he has to bring forward proposals to give further powers to Select Committees to take evidence on matters relating to European policy and European draft legislative proposals; and if he will make a statement. [80384]
Mr. Robin Cook: I refer the hon. Lady to the Government's Observations on the Thirtieth Report of the European Scrutiny Committee 2001–02, European Scrutiny in the Commons (Second Special Report of that Committee 2001–02, HC 1256), particularly paragraphs 6 and 34–36. Select Committees have power already to take evidence on matters relating to European policy and European draft legislative proposals; and the Liaison Committee's recent guidance to select committees on core objectives and tasks specifically asks them to examine policy proposals from the European Commission.
WORK AND PENSIONS
Disability Living Allowance
Valerie Davey: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people with autism and Asperger's Syndrome applied for disability living allowance in 2001; how many were (a) successful in their application and (b) refused; and how many of those who were refused were later awarded disability living allowance on appeal. [77283]
Maria Eagle: The information requested is not available but such information we can give is shown in the table:
| Learning Difficulties | Severely mentally impaired | |
|---|---|---|
| Great Britain | 13.7 | 0.1* |
Notes:
1. Figures are in thousands and rounded to the nearest hundred.
2. Figures marked* are under 500 and therefore are subject to a high degree of sampling variation and should only be used as a guide to the current situation.
3. We do not have autism listed as a disability, therefore, figures for people with Kanner type autism are most likely to be classed under severely mentally impaired, and people with Asperger's Syndrome could be classified under learning difficulties, although these figures will also include other people.
4. New recipients figures are people in receipt of DLA at November 2001 but not November 2000, there will be a small additional number of new recipients in the year to November 2001 whose DLA award had ceased before 30 November 2001. Therefore, they will not have been present on either our November 2000 or 2001 extract.
Source:
Figures taken from the AA/DLA computer system as at 30 November each year sample.
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